Fact or Fiction

A company only employs two people so is it true that they do not have to carry out Risk Assessments?

Fact Or Fiction Answers

Answer to last months fact or fiction

f you drop food on the floor and pick it up within 3 seconds it is safe to use?
Fiction as soon as food touches the floor it can be contaminated with harmful bacteria rendering it unsafe to eat.

Answer to this months fact or fiction

Fiction,

The law (The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999)  requires that all employers and self employed carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks not just to themselves and their employees but also to any others who may be affected by their work or business. The regulations also require that employers with 5 or more employees record the significant findings of their risk assessments. Further guidance can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/index.htm

Health & Safety News

Are Your Risk assessments up to date?

Do you have sufficient safeguards in place?

 

Following The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) recent prosecution of a fence making company for an incident in which a worker lost the index finger of their right hand whilst using an unguarded circular saw, the  HSE are warning employers to ensure that they have assessed the risks posed by workplace machinery and to ensure that they have adequate safeguards in place.

 

The HSE investigation found that the company had failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the machine, these assessments should have identified the need for guarding. and that adequate training should also have been given for the operation of the circular saw.

Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act covers the General duties of employers to their employees and states

“It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.”

 

This includes

Section 2(2)

“ (a) the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are,

so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health;” and

“(c) the provision of such information, instruction, training and supervision as is  necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of his employees;”

 

However as this particular incident involved an agency worker this represented a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 which states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety"

Food Safety News

BBQ’s

Common barbecue food can carry many Pathogenic (illness causing) bacteria such as Salmonella, Campylobacter and E.Coli. and remember we can not see, smell or taste these pathogenic organisms

A Few simple steps to take to help keep our food safe to eat during BBQ season

• Always make sure the food is thoroughly defrosted before cooking it
• ensure food is cooked properly by ensuring the BBq is hot enough to cook on (e.g the coals are glowing red rather than initial flames)
• Ensure the food is cooked evenly and the centre is piping hot (turn it over and move it around to ensure heat is distributed evenly)
• Keep food covered cool and until required for cooking
• Keep the raw food well away from the cooked food (don’t put cooked food back onto the plate that the raw food was on unless it has been properly washed)
• Don’t forget simple steps like hand washing before you start cooking and use separate utensils for raw and cooked meat
• Consider cooking some foods like chicken in the oven in advance then put on the BBQ to gain the smoky flavour at the end of cooking

More information can be found on the Food Standards Agency website at
http://www.food.gov.uk/

Public Courses

Course Title	Venue	Date
CIEH Level 3 Award in Food Safety for Supervisors	TBC	Aug
CIEH Level 2 Award Principles and Practices of Manual handling	TBC	Aug
CIEH Level 4 Award in Managing Food Safety	Boston	Sep
Emergency First Aid at Work	Boston	Jun/Aug
IOSH Working safely	Boston	Jun/Aug
IOSH Managing safely	Boston	Aug/ Sep

 

If the course you are looking for is not available or you would like more details about in house or Bespoke courses please contact us.

 

New Courses

CIEH Level 2 Principles and Practices in Manual Handling,

 

This new qualification builds on the principles of manual handling by allowing learners to continue their learning from the theory of the risks and possible controls in manual handling onto applying the principles of safer manual handling in everyday tasks.

 

The qualification is designed for all employees and is delivered over one  full or two half days, the principles section is assessed by a 30 question multiple choice paper and the practices by ongoing practical assessments during the training session.

 

The training programme covers the following topics:

 

• manual handling hazards, risks and controls
• how manual handling operations can cause injury and harm
• the scope of legal requirements and where guidance can be found
• the process for assessing manual handling risks
• the value of risk assessment and how it applies to safe manual handling practice
• manual handling techniques – lifting loads from low levels/working at low levels/lowering from height/pushing loads/pulling loads/carrying/team handling

 

IOSH Working Safely

 

Working safely provides grounding in the essentials of health and safety and is suitable for employees at all levels in all industry sectors and is delivered over one day. Working safely meets the government's guidelines for introductory health and safety training and is a 100 per cent match to the Health and Safety Executive's 'passport' syllabus.

 

This high impact interactive training course is designed to get the candidates fully involved. It is delivered without the use of jargon and is based on what people need to know in practice.

 

The training programme covers the following topics

 

• Introducing working safely
• Defining hazard and risk
• Identifying common hazards
• Improving safety performance
• Protecting our environment.