NEBOSH

MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH AND SAFETY

UNIT IG1:
For: NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety

MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

UNIT IGC1:
For: NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety
NEBOSH International Certificate in Construction Health and Safety
NEBOSH International Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management

Open Book Examination

Available for 24 hours

Guidance to learners

This is an open book examination. It is not invigilated, and you are free to use any learning
resources to which you have access, eg your course notes, or a website, etc.

By submitting this completed assessment for marking, you are declaring it is entirely your own work.
Knowingly claiming work to be your own when it is someone else’s work is malpractice, which carries
severe penalties. This means that you must not collaborate with or copy work from others. Neither
should you ‘cut and paste’ blocks of text from the Internet or other sources.

The examination begins with a realistic scenario to set the scene. You will then need to complete a
series of tasks based on this scenario. Each task will consist of one or more questions.

Your responses to most of these tasks should wholly, or partly, draw on relevant information from the
scenario. The task will clearly state the extent to which this is required.

The marks available are shown in brackets to the right of each question, or part of each question.
This will help guide you to the amount of information required in your response. In general, one mark
is given for each correct technical point that is clearly demonstrated. Avoid writing too little as this
will make it difficult for the Examiner to award marks. Single word answers or lists are unlikely to
gain marks as this would not normally be enough to show understanding or a connection with the
scenario.

You are not expected to write more than 3 000 words in total.
Try to distribute your time and word count proportionately across all tasks.
It is recommended that you use the answer template.
Please attempt ALL tasks.

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SCENARIO

A scientific research organisation employs 150 people, most of them are scientists or technicians.
The remainder of the staff work in finance, human resources (HR), marketing and communications
functions. Most of the senior leadership team and line managers are scientists. The Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) set the organisation up about 10 years ago and quickly recruited 5 former scientist
colleagues as directors. Together they form the senior leadership team. Worker numbers have
grown from around 40 to the current 150.

The existing building is not large enough to accommodate this increase in workers. So, it is
advantageous that many can work from home doing desk-research. However, some workers still
come to site as required. Initially, the work carried out was largely desk-based research and
approximately 40 scientists were employed.

A biology laboratory was introduced a few years ago, and the desk-based research continues
alongside this. The innovative science, being pioneered by the organisation, has recently attracted
significant investment. This has enabled the acquisition of a large single storey warehouse on an
industrial park. The intention is to refurbish the building for use as a number of laboratories and
offices.

The activities planned at this new site will greatly enhance the capacity and capability of the
organisation. The biology function of the organisation will be expanding, and chemistry laboratories
will be added (which will include some continuous automated processes). Outside, car parking
spaces will be converted to house a chemical store and the goods-in area for deliveries.

The organisation has limited experience in managing general health and safety risks and those
specific risks associated with laboratory facilities and the refurbishment of the newly purchased
warehouse. You are relatively new to the organisation and your role is split between managing the
existing laboratory and advising on health and safety. You are currently studying the NEBOSH
Diploma for Occupational Health and Safety Management Professionals. You have experience of
working in much larger research organisations alongside qualified health and safety practitioners.

You have introduced a laboratory safety manual – it covers general safety equipment, standard
safety practices, drills, waste management, key risks from laboratory work, physical, chemical and
biological hazards. You use some of this in an induction for new starters. The directors and
managers are more concerned with getting on with research, and health and safety is considered a
necessary inconvenience. You have tried to get the leadership team to take the lead on specific risk
assessments for some of the practical experiments, but they do not see it as their responsibility and
think it is your job. You have explained that you are not familiar with some of the unique materials
that the scientific research organisation are using and need the leaderships team’s input. The
scientists rely heavily on their scientific knowledge to guide their practice. Some of the newer
scientist recruits have spent more time doing practical experiments in their previous roles and have
shown interest in working with you.

No general health and safety awareness training is provided. You ask HR what health and safety
training management have been given. HR respond that training records are down to individuals to
keep, but HR doubt that they have had any training. As the work has been largely desk-based in the
office or at home, health and safety has not been considered an issue.

A friend of the CEO is a director of an organisation experienced in refurbishing and fitting out
buildings for educational and laboratory use. The CEO is impressed by their friend’s apparent
knowledge of all the issues, including those associated with health and safety, that need to be
addressed. The friend has mentioned that their organisation has recently gained an accredited
health and safety management system. This has helped reduce costs including insurance premiums.
To gain this accredited system, the friend’s organisation had undergone an extensive assessment of
their policies, procedures, and risk assessments. The CEO recommends to the Board that their
friend’s organisation is appointed to carry out the building refurbishment. The CEO believes that this
will take care of many issues where there is a lack experience in the CEO’s own organisation. The

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CEO’s recommendations are accepted. The Board are keen to get the new facility operational. This
will give the opportunity to showcase the organisation’s innovation and attract further investment.

You find out what you can about this contractor – they do not appear to have had any enforcement
action taken against them. You also note from their website that they are a member of a contractor
health and safety scheme. You contact the scheme provider to confirm this. The website also
indicates their health and safety performance is better than the sector average.

You are asked to be part of the project team for the development of the new facility. There is an
expectation that you will be the Laboratory Manager at the new facility, with responsibility for health
and safety. You recognise that to do this role effectively you need to be competent. You discuss
with the Director of Laboratories that you need to complete your studying as soon as possible.
Initially, they are reluctant for you to take time out to study. They are concerned this will distract you
from your day job. You put together a case as to why this is necessary, and the Director eventually
agrees to support you.

The project team meets weekly in a temporary building at the new site. You are involved in providing
information on hazards and risks associated with the new processes.

A new upper floor is being installed, which has been left with an unprotected edge with a vertical
drop. A pile of materials has been put by this edge and a temporary barrier has been placed in front
of the materials, to warn of the danger of the unprotected edge.

The contractor workforce (supervisor and 3 workers) arrives on site and reports to the site office.
The work is to be carried out under a permit-to-work (PTW). The supervisor, trained in the
responsibilities of accepting and working under a PTW, provides a description of the work to be done
to the permit issuer. The two of them have a brief discussion about the work, including the nature of
the job and its associated hazards and risks. Control measures for working at height are also
discussed. The permit issuer does not go to check on the upper floor before issuing the permit and is
being called away by the project manager. The multi-copy form is quickly completed for the work to
start immediately. A copy is left in the site office, the supervisor retains one and the permit issuer
says that they will put the permit on the display board.

The contractor workers are on the upper floor, assessing the job and need some clarification. The
supervisor has gone for a break and has taken the copy of the permit with them. The contractor
workers are keen to get on with the job. After waiting around, they decide to carry on.

While lifting some wooden boards near the unprotected edge, one of the contractor workers stumbles
and falls 3 metres, hitting their head on a concrete floor below. The other workers shout for help.
The supervisor (returning from a break) hears the shouts, as does the project manager who is in the
site office. Both arrive at the scene. Unsure of the site first-aid arrangements, the supervisor rushes
back to their van to fetch a first-aid kit. One of the workers calls an ambulance from their mobile
phone. You were already on your way to the site when the project manager telephones you.

On arrival, you find that the contractor workers are visibly shocked. The supervisor is tending to the
injured worker. No one appears to have taken control of the situation. You set up temporary barriers
to prevent access to the accident location, remove on-lookers and take the remaining contractor
workers to the site office to get a coffee. The project manager has already stopped all work at the
site.

You telephone the CEO to advise them of the accident and that it will require reporting to the
competent authority. The CEO is concerned about the delays to the refurbishment and tell you to
minimise any delay and get the place cleaned up so that work can continue. You explain that the
scene needs to be preserved as there will need to be an investigation and that the labour
inspectorate will be likely to visit the site.

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Task 1: Selecting and managing contractors

1 Comment on the scientific research organisation’s approach to selecting

contractors for the refurbishment work. (20)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.

Task 2: Health and safety management systems

2 Effective health and safety management requires good leadership.

Comment on the current health and safety leadership in the scientific research
organisation. (10)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.

Task 3: Influencing health and safety culture

3 What appear to be the negative indicators of health and safety culture in the
scientific research organisation? (15)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.

Task 4: Training recommendations

4 An accident investigation reveals a general lack of awareness of health and

safety in the scientific research organisation.

Based on the scenario only, what training would you recommend the scientific
research organisation arranges for the different types of workers, to improve
health and safety competence? (10)

Task 5: Assessing the permit-to-work system arrangements

5 Based on the scenario only, comment on the application of the permit-to-work

system. (10)

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Task 6: Suitability of the approach to risk assessment

6 (a) Based on the scenario only, comment on the scientific research

organisation’s approach to assessing health and safety risks. (7)

(b) What arguments would you use to persuade the directors to be more
involved in risk assessment? (8)

Task 7: Accident investigation

7 (a) Comment on the initial response to the accident. (10)

(b) Having secured the scene, what would you do with the workers who
witnessed the accident, to gather information for the investigation? (5)

(c) How should the contractor worker’s accident be externally reported by

the employer? (5)
Note: You should support your answers, where applicable, with information
from the scenario.

End of examination

Now follow the instructions on submitting your answers.

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