ABOUT CDA

My name is COLIN ANDERSON and I'm here to tell you that Health and Safety in the workplace matters. The importance of having the right documentation for the right task is paramount. If you get it right and more importantly keep it right then any incidents, minor or major, will not end up costing your company thousands of pounds in fines etc.

Legislation can be hard to understand and even harder to put and keep in place so as to conform ‘so far as reasonably practicable’ to the laws.

I formed CDA Health and Safety and my motto is ‘Health and safety made simple’. Believe me it's not, but I will make sure that your company conforms in such a way that everyone involved can understand. From policy writing to training, risk assessments to manual handling, we cover it all. And if you think you comply fully with all your health and safety needs, then great. Why not take advantage of our health and safety audit service? Just to make sure!!!!!’

Thank you.

The following examples are factual.

A Kettering-based firm were fined £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,255 at Kettering Magistrates Court today, Thursday 11 June, 2009, after pleading guilty to breaching Health and Safety legislation.

The firm contravened Regulation 3(1)a (the information says 3(1) ) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 in that they failed to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees undertaking maintenance that involved working at height.

On 17 July 2008, at the company's premises, a 53-year-old local worker was oiling the chains on a machine that stacks bags of animal feed onto pallets, when he fell approximately six feet, resulting in bruised ribs and a punctured lung.

The risks of working at height always need to be fully assessed as every month 1,000 workers suffer a serious injury following a slip, trip or a fall in the workplace.

The outcome of this incident, the injuries and the subsequent fine remind us that the results can be serious for people and for businesses that fail to comply with their health and safety duties.

COULD THIS HAPPEN TO YOU?

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning employers to ensure they have adequate safeguards in place to prevent access to dangerous parts of their machinery. This warning follows HSE’s prosecution of a metal containers company, after an employee’s one finger was broken in two places and another injured in the unguarded rotating part of a chained conveyor.

The metal container company, was fined a total of £7,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,735 at Burton Magistrates’ Court (on 8th June, 2009) after the company had earlier pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety legislation.

HSE brought charges against the company, under Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 and Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 following its investigation into the incident that occurred, on 29 March, 2008 at the company’s works in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.

The company had failed to identify the risks involved in clearing blockages and the need for guarding on the machine’s exposed moving parts. The company had not taken sufficient measures to guard its employees from dangerous parts of machinery.

Speaking after the case, HSE investigating officer said:

"The dangers of using machines without suitable safeguards are well known and long-established. Serious injuries such as amputation can result when limbs, or parts of limbs, become trapped by moving parts so it is fortunate that, in this case, injuries were not more severe.

"Allowing machines to be operated without suitable and appropriate guards blatantly ignores the safety of employees and is a fundamental failure by the company.

COULD THIS HAPPEN TO YOU?

These are just a couple of examples highlighting the need to comply with your health and safety needs.

It’s also worth noting that if you have less than 5 employees, although you don’t have a ‘legal obligation’ to have a statement of your health and safety commitment in writing, you are still responsible for the health and safety of that or those employees. The above case examples would have been the same if you had 1 or 100 employees. Health and Safety legislation exists to protect all employees, no matter how large or small your workforce is. It is therefore in your own interest to have a health and safety statement ..... just to be sure.

Let CDA take care of it for you, comprehensively….