IOSH Event

Health and Safety Executive Update

John Heslop
HM Inspector of Health & Safety
john.heslop@hse.gov.uk
 Agenda

• Latest Statistics for Ill-Health and Injury

• Priority of HSE Work

• Recent Targeted Campaigns

• Enforcement Expectations
Latest Statistics for Workplace Ill-Health &
Injury
Key Health and Safety Statistics for Great Britain (2017/18):
• 1.4 million working people suffering from a work-related illness
• 2,595 mesothelioma deaths due to past asbestos exposures
• 144 workers killed at work
• 555,000 injuries at work
• 71,062 injuries to employees reported under the Reporting of
Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013
• 30.7 million working days lost due to work-related illness and
workplace injury
• £15 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current
working conditions
 Latest Statistics for Workplace Ill-
Health & Injury
• 82,000 workers suffering from work-related
ill health
• 51,000 work-related musculoskeletal
disorders
• 14,000 work-related cases of stress,
depression or anxiety

• 38 fatal injuries to workers in 2017/2018

• 48% due to falls from height
• 58,000 non-fatal injuries to workers each
year
 Priority of HSE Work

• Reactive Work
• Investigations
• Concerns

• Proactive Work
• Licensed Asbestos Inspections
• F10 Inspections
• Drive-By

• Targeted Campaigns
Recent Targeted Campaigns

• After 5 years of ‘Think Health’ it was time to move to ‘Do Health’.

Aims:
• To deliver a campaign that increased the profile of health issues
and encouraged the industry to ‘Do Health’ as part of their
standard on-site management arrangements;
• To focus specifically on respiratory risks and take robust
enforcement action where poor standards were found;
• To gather intelligence on compliance with managing respiratory
risks and other health issues to inform the content of subsequent
health inspection and enforcement work; and
• To promote the wider HSE ‘Go Home Healthy’ Campaign and so
contribute to corporate objectives.
Recent Targeted Campaigns
Enforcement Expectations

• Verbal advice
• Written advice
• Notification of Contravention
• Improvement Notice
• Prohibition Notice
• Prosecution
Enforcement Expectations:
Asbestos

• Prohibition Notice
• No Refurbishment and Demolition Survey
• Insufficient Refurbishment and Demolition Survey
• No action taken to meet the recommendations of a Refurbishment
and Demolition Survey
• Working practices disturbing, or likely to disturb asbestos-
containing materials
• Significant fibre release and spread from asbestos-containing
materials
Enforcement Expectations:
Asbestos

• Improvement Notice
• No, or insufficient information, instruction and training;
• Asbestos awareness
• Non-licensable work with asbestos including notifiable non-
licensed work
• Licensable work with asbestos

• Duty of employer in relation to information, instruction and

training:
• Required for all direct employees
• So far as is reasonably practicable for other people on the premises
 Non-licensed Work with Asbestos
Notifiable Non-licensed Work with Asbestos

• Non-licensed work with asbestos:

• Sporadic and of low intensity (lower than 0.6f/cm³ over 10 mins)
• Carried out to control exposure (lower than 0.1f/cm³ over 4 hours)
• Meet 1 of these 4 conditions:
• Short, non-continuous maintenance task with non-friable materials
• Removal task where ACMs are in reasonable condition, are not being
broken up and fibres are firmly contained within a matrix.
• ACMs are in good condition and being sealed or encapsulated.
• Air monitoring and control task or the collection of samples.
• Notifiable non-licensed work with asbestos:
• You are responsible for determining this through an appropriate risk
assessment.
• It would still need to be minor, short duration work, but is generally
for the same type of work as non-licensed but where the material is
friable, in poor condition or loosely bonded in a matrix
Enforcement Expectations:
Silica

• Prohibition Notice
Inadequate controls in place when
• Cutting concrete kerbs, flags, blocks and roofing tiles with a cut-off
saw
• Chasing concrete and raking mortar
• High energy scabbling/grinding tools or longer duration breaking
work in enclosed and poorly ventilated areas
• Dry abrasive blasting/cleaning

• Improvement Notice
• No, or insufficient information, instruction and training
Enforcement Expectations:
Silica
Enforcement Expectations:
Manual Handling

• Prohibition Notice
• Highly unlikely.
• Improvement Notice
 Enforcement Expectations:
Noise

• Prohibition Notice
• Certain high-risk tasks (i.e. significant noise generation above
LEP,d 85dB or peak sound pressure of 137dB c-weighted) and
where there is no hearing protection or suitable / adequate
control at source is missing. Tools that typically breach operators
85 LEP,d after 5 mins of use include:
• Petrol cut off saw
• Asphalt groove cutter
• Pneumatic chipping hammer/breaker
• Sand blasting

• Improvement Notice
• No, or insufficient risk assessment and controls
• No, or insufficient information, instruction and training
 Enforcement Expectations:
Vibration

• Prohibition Notice
• Clear evidence that exposure is above 5m/s² and there is
demonstrable risk (i.e. not a ‘one-off’ exposure)

• Improvement Notice
• No, or insufficient risk assessment and controls
• No, or insufficient information, instruction and training
 Enforcement Expectations:
Other Respiratory Risks

Enforcement will vary depending on the specific material breach.

• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 7(1)

• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 7(9)

• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 8(1)

• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 9(3)

• Face fit tests & RPE Maintenance

 Enforcement Expectations:
Other Hazardous Substances Risks

• Cements

• Solvents

• Isocyanates

• Carbon Monoxide

• Lead
Enforcement Expectations:
Welfare
Questions or Comments?