Sentencing for near miss events.

28 April, 2016

M J Allen Holdings, a metalwork casting and machinery company, failed to provide suitable work at height equipment and did not offer to train its employees, an HSE investigation found (note: no harm arose – this was “only” a near miss).

Canterbury Crown Court heard that on 19 September 2014 (i.e. nearly 18 months before the new sentencing guidelines came into force – Feb 2016) three employees of the company’s maintenance team accessed the foundry roof using a mobile elevating working

Their lives or ours?

29 May, 2012

Over the past few years there have been a number of cases in the news where either fire-fighters have lost their lives whilst trying to rescue people or people have died when fire-fighters have held back from entering a building.

There is a case currently in progress where fire officers are being prosecuted for involuntary (gross negligence) manslaughter, after fire-fighters lost their lives during a fire.  If they are found guilty they could be jailed for as much as 15 years

What was that you said?

25 May, 2012

This article was written for Risk and Safety Plus by Joan McKechnie BSc Hons Audiology & Speech Pathology. Joan works for Hearing Direct, which offers a range of hearing equipment for the deaf and hard of hearing. 

In the Western world, the two most common types of hearing loss are age-related and noise induced.  Age-related hearing loss is a gradual deterioration in hearing ability and there’s nothing that you can do to prevent it happening as you get older.  However, noise

Z is for Zoonoses

18 January, 2012

What is a zoonosis?  It’s a disease that can be transferred from an animal (or bird) to a human.  Think of ‘Mad Cow Disease’ (BST) and Bird Flu – both zoonoses.

Catteries, kennels, equestrian centres, zoos and farms are all places where care needs to be taken.  People who look after any animals need to know the health history of the animals they are caring for to ensure that they are not likely to be at risk.

If you don’t have animals

Young people don’t understand risk!

04 January, 2012

Risk management is based on following a formula – inform; instruct; train; supervise.  When you have children you use this all the time when they’re young.  As they get older and able to understand the implication of their actions supervision gets less and they are expected to take more responsibility.

However, the move from the supervised school environment to the workplace is a much bigger leap than most youngsters are prepared for.  It’s no wonder that young people entering the workplace