NEBOSH

MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH AND SAFETY

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

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 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

Secure National is a privately-owned security services organisation. They succeeded in a recent

takeover following the bankruptcy of another security organisation. Restructuring of the organisation
means that Secure National operates from a head office in a city centre. The new owner is the
managing director (MD) and a board of six other directors form the management team (MT). The
rest of the head office’s workforce consists of various departments, comprising of human resources,
IT, finance, and general administration.

The organisation has five regional offices across the country. The MT is satisfied that regional office
managers (ROMs) successfully manage on-site security operations. The MT only gets involved with
significant problems. The regional offices operate 24 hours every day, with a reduced number of
workers between 20:00 – 06:00 for dealing with emergencies.

Most of the regional workforces are made up of security officers (SOs) working on sites where
Secure National have been awarded contracts to operate. Around the country, Secure National
operates 818 sites and employs 2 404 security officers to operate these sites. The sites generally
have more than one SO on duty at the same time, but there are a small number of sites (91) where
only one SO is on duty at any one time.

The SOs complete a training course to obtain a required government license (RGL) and also train as
a first-aider. Only licenced SOs are allowed to be on duty at the sites. SOs are required to attend
one-to-one meetings twice a year with ROMs at their regional office. These meetings are usually to
discuss progress, receive feedback and resolve any local issues.

The site
Secure National has been responsible for security at an onshore windfarm for 10 years. The
windfarm is in a remote location that has annual average temperatures between -5°C (23°F) and
13°C (55.4°F). When constructed, the site had five wind turbines across a fenced-in hillside, with a
gatehouse at the entrance where the SOs are based. A year ago, the fenced-in area was expanded
and five more wind turbines were added to the site.

To help ensure that there are no unauthorised visitors to the windfarm, the SOs periodically patrol the
site to check the perimeters and the locations around each wind turbine. A new design of electronic
monitoring system was installed to replace an outdated one at the same time that the additional wind
turbines were installed. The SOs scan ID cards at each wind turbine to confirm when they have
checked that location. The scanned data is kept in a digital log that the automated system
periodically sends to the regional office. The log can also be accessed on a computer at the
gatehouse. If the regional office does not receive data after six hours, the SOs are contacted by the
office to determine whether there are any issues.

The mobile phone telephone signal is only intermittent at the gatehouse, but is unavailable further
into the hillside. Short-range, two-way radios are used in these circumstances.

The site is operated by two SOs. The day shift SO (DSO) has worked at this site for five years. The
current night shift SO (NSO) is relatively new and transferred to this site three months ago. The DSO
works 06:00 – 18:00 and the NSO works 18:00 – 06:00. Secure National provides relief guards to
cover for sickness or annual leave. The SOs are instructed to arrive approximately 20 minutes
before their shift begins, so that a shift handover can be carried out.

The accident
It is winter, and the first snow of the season has fallen more heavily than expected overnight. While
driving to work the DSO called the NSO and left a message on their phone. This was to inform the
NSO that the DSO would be late because the snow was making the road difficult to drive on. When
the DSO finally arrived at the gatehouse 30 minutes late, the NSO was not there, but their car was
still parked outside. Concerned, the DSO called the NSO’s mobile phone, but there was no answer.
They radioed the NSO, and again, did not receive a reply. After repeated, failed radio attempts, the

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DSO checked the computer system to see what time the NSO last scanned their ID card, and at
which wind turbine. It was wind turbine 9 at 03:00.

The DSO decided to call the emergency services as a precaution. It took the DSO five minutes to
find a location where the phone signal enabled them to make this call. The DSO told the emergency
services of the NSO’s likely location and provided the access code to the gatehouse. The DSO
picked up their radio, a first-aid kit, and a blanket, before going to find the NSO. They found the NSO
lying a few feet downhill from wind turbine 9. The NSO was partially covered by snow, and visibly
bleeding from a head wound. The DSO asked what happened and the NSO tried to respond, before
becoming unconscious. All the DSO could understand was the word ‘slipped’.

Opening the first-aid kit, the DSO found only safety pins, disposable gloves, and small plasters. The
DSO cleared snow off the NSO. They put a blanket underneath the NSO, as part of emergency first
aid, then covered them with their coat. They stayed with the NSO until the emergency services
arrived.

An ambulance arrived 40 minutes later and the NSO was taken to hospital. They were treated for
hypothermia, a head injury, and a fractured wrist. The DSO contacted the regional office to inform
them of the accident. The DSO would remain on site when their shift ended until cover could be
arranged. The NSO was off work for six weeks. During this time, an accident investigation was
carried out.

Audit
Following the investigation, Secure National’s MT advised the regional office to arrange for a full
health and safety audit of the windfarm site. This would determine what improvements would be
needed to prevent a recurrence of the accident. An experienced, external health and safety
consultant (who is a Chartered member of a health and safety professional body) would carry this
out.

Two weeks later, on the morning of the audit, the ROM met the consultant on site. While escorting
the consultant to the gatehouse, the ROM said, “the audit seems like a lot of effort for a site like this.”

Once inside, the consultant asked to see all relevant health and safety documentation. The ROM
provided them with a file from their bag. This contained the health and safety policy (dated February
2021), a generic risk assessment, and a lone and remote working activities guidance document for
Secure National SO’s. The risk assessment was carried out in 2017 by the regional office and
contained no reference to specific sites. While warming themselves inside the heated gatehouse, the
ROM told the DSO on shift to take the consultant on a tour of the windfarm. On the tour, the DSO
explained their day-to-day duties, and told the consultant about the recent accident findings.

Following the accident, the hillside still had patches of snow that had become hardened by freezing
temperatures. The consultant struggled along the path as the snow and ice had not been fully
cleared. They commented that working here during the winter must be challenging. The DSO
agreed and remarked that they try to work faster to get back to the warm gatehouse during bad
weather. The consultant asked the DSO if they were aware of any of the health and safety
documentation provided by the ROM. The DSO replied that they were given the documents to read
at their induction. They highlighted a lack of refresher training which they had raised as an issue at
multiple one-to-one meetings.

Once back at the gatehouse, the consultant asked the ROM about accident investigations at the site.
The ROM explained that details of any accidents and incidents are recorded if they were reported.
They also remarked that they doubted that all accidents and incidents were reported.

The consultant thanked the ROM and DSO for their time, and confirmed that they would take the
information away for review and deliver a report to the MT.

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Following the audit results, the MT considered the plan of action provided by the consultant and told
the regional office to schedule annual risk assessment reviews from now on. They also told the
regional office that an SO from each site must be involved in the annual risk assessment reviews.

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Task 1: Emergency response

1 Based on the scenario only, comment on how the DSO effectively managed
the emergency. (10)

Task 2: Managing risks for those working on site

2 The organisation’s approach to managing risk, affecting SOs working at the

wind farm, has both strengths and weaknesses.

(a) What are the strengths of their approach? (10)

Note: You should support your answers, where applicable, using
relevant information from the scenario.

(b) What are the weaknesses of their approach? (12)

Note: You should support your answers, where applicable, using
relevant information from the scenario.

Task 3: Active and reactive monitoring measures

3 The consultant advises the MT that the organisation (Secure National) should
carry out health and safety performance monitoring.

(a) What are the reactive (lagging) monitoring measures that could be put in
place by the organisation? (12)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.

(b) Based on the scenario only, what active (leading) monitoring measures
could be readily available for use by the organisation? (4)

Task 4: Considering the impact and management of change

4 A management of change team was set up by the Secure National MT.

(a) Explain why the competence of this team is important in the

management of change? (8)

(b) Based on the scenario only, what types of change require management
of change controls? (6)

Task 5: Policy review

5 Why might the health and safety policy require a review? (15)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.

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Task 6: Monitoring and measuring (audits)

6 Comment on the strengths of Secure National’s approach to the audit. (11)

Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.

Task 7: Financial arguments to improve health and safety

7 What financial arguments could be used to convince Secure National’s MT

that health and safety needs to be improved? (12)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.

End of examination

Now follow the instructions on submitting your answers.

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