Landsec and asbestos Recruitment round table Kevin Myers

Property company’s Regulators’ organisation

How to get ahead in OSH
belt-and-braces controls chief interviewed

Safety, health and wellbeing in the world of work

May 2018 ioshmagazine.com

SEPARATION ANXIETY
How will the UK work with the REACH Regulation post-Brexit?
Are you GDPR
compliant?
Human error
accounts for 62%
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Under new EU regulations firms
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50% of organisations will fail

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Comment

Official magazine of

The Institution of Occupational Safety

The standard measure of an
organisation’s safety and health
and Health (IOSH) is the world’s leading
professional body for people responsible
for safety and health in the workplace.

Published by LexisNexis performance has long been the

number of people injured or made ill
Quadrant House, The Quadrant,
Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS
+44 (0) 20 8686 9141
Editor
Louis Wustemann +44 (0) 20 8212 1945 despite its preventive efforts.
louis.wustemann@lexisnexis.co.uk
Deputy editor
Nick Warburton +44 (0) 20 8401 1804 When reporting systems are robust, remember the instructions a few weeks
nick.warburton@lexisnexis.co.uk
accident frequency rates are the later, or acted on them on the job.
Assistant editor most obvious sign of the state of OSH (There is a more basic argument for
Keeley Downey +44 (0) 20 8401 1809
keeley.downey@lexisnexis.co.uk management. evaluation, of course, which is that it’s
Web editor and online project coordinator
But they also come late, trailing the only way that you can be sure it was
Wendy Smith +44 (0) 20 8212 1973 interventions by months and telling a worth spending the money or effort in the
wendy.smith@lexisnexis.co.uk story about their effect sometimes too late first place.)
Advertising to be much use. This kind of assessment makes more
Kelly Daunt, Luke Hopper; Sam Mackenzie
Gathering data on near-misses and work and, as Bridget Leathley notes
advertisingsales@lexisnexis.co.uk
unpicking those that had the potential in this month’s Lexicon article on
Design and technology manager
Elliott Tompkins to do serious harm adds a predictive benchmarking (p 50), it is tempting to
elliott.tompkins@lexisnexis.co.uk element, but it’s still a measure of what measure things that are easy to count.
Senior designer you didn’t do rather than what you did. But congratulating yourself on a job
Jack Witherden Inspired by recent trends in OSH well done based on numerical inputs is
jack.witherden@lexisnexis.co.uk
thinking that emphasise the value of like a manufacturer judging its success
Advertisement production
positive efforts to improve safety as a by the quantity of raw materials it
John Woffenden +44 (0) 20 8212 1935
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Marketing manager failings, many larger organisations have finished units. Or, more widely, it’s like
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rakhee.patel@lexisnexis.co.uk ones of accident and illness rates. rising revenues but pays less attention to
Publisher These “leading indicators” record profitability.
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the active attempts to improve the Turnover is vanity but profit is sanity,
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safety culture, such as the number of the saying goes. Adding some guaranteed
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source. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
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effectiveness of that input.
ISSN 2396-7447  © IOSH 2018
Just as most practitioners know that
IOSH Magazine is printed it’s not the quantity or detail of risk
by ISO 14001 certified
printers on 50% recycled
assessments that helps make a workplace
paper stock and despatched safer, rather how the resulting control Louis Wustemann
in oxo degradable polywrap
measures are enacted, the same is true of Editor
Printed by William Gibbons
& Sons Ltd. Willenhall,
West Midlands.
training and toolbox talks.
The meaningful indicator of how an
input contributed to improving safety and
health is not how many people turned up
and sat through a session but how many
of them thought it was useful, could

MAY 2018 1
Contents
May 2018

In focus News
4 Royal Opera House violist
p4 in acoustic shock claim 4

Court’s landmark ruling

Shoddy refurb allowed
Grenfell fire to spread

on music-induced injury 5 Window installer’s £850k

fine for broken knee cap
High Court rules Royal Opera House failed Off-the-shelf handling
to protect a violist from acoustic shock training ‘a waste of
money’, HSE warns

p9 6 Untrained teenager
run over by road-rage
IOSH research exposes customer at McDonald’s
asbestos ignorance Global review site
will highlight abusive
recruitment practices
One in three construction workers never check
the asbestos register before starting work on 8 Pledge to cut high-
hazard industry deaths
a new site, according to Opinium research
in Northern Ireland
Royal Mail fined £1.6m
p13 over yard marshal’s
10 Poundworld to pay £1.2m
penalty for housekeeping
and hygiene offences
Restricted chemicals in
hundreds of EU products
11 Builder undermined
‘worst’ legacy material
12 Tesco COSHH breaches
left employee with

Good to Great multiple injuries chemical burns

9 Third of construction Health surveillance
In a new column on seminal business books, workers don’t check ignorance costs firm £50k
Andrew Sharman lauds Jim Collins’s classic asbestos registers
Widow receives damages
for asbestos death
p44 8 13 Oz regulator investigates
outback nurse’s death
Just the job 14 Network Rail fined £733k
Tips from experts on how to shine in writing over train derailment
and in person when you try for a new role Met Police admits
collusion with blacklisters

IOSH News
16 Cathy Newman returns
to chair IOSH 2018 17
IOSH to host APOSHO 33
17 NTTL: time to fight
‘despicable disease
head-on’
New CPD course dates
added
Notice of special general
18 WORK 2022: a year of meeting
progress
19 Join IOSH Council and
16 develop yourself and
your institution
New theatre group
launched
Two directors join IOSH
board

2 MAY 2018
Features Regulars
24 REACH: Brexit strategies 24 Columns
What are the options COVER 7 Richard Jones
for chemicals regulation STORY 13 Andrew Sharman
when the UK leaves the
European Union? 20 Events

28 Leader interview 21 Online

Kevin Myers, president
of IALI, shares his 22 Reviews
recollections of managing 50 Top Tools For
the HSE through Employee Wellbeing
ministers’ “monstering” Safety, Health and
of safety and health Environmental Auditing:
a practical guide
36 Landsec: duty to manage
The FTSE 100 developer’s 50 Lexicon
latest asbestos removal B is for benchmarking
project will be used by
the HSE to assess the 53 Off duty
effectiveness of control Dean Bailey, head of
measures health and safety, NHS
Foundation Trust, and
44 Table talk: you’re hired “ultra” runner
Recruitment experts
discuss how candidates 54 Recruitment
can secure the best
job offers and what
employers should do
to attract the best
candidates

28

36

MAY 2018 3
News
In Short
BT’s unsafe streetworks
BT has been fined £90,000 after
it admitted carrying out unsafe
streetworks in London. It is the
highest financial penalty for such
an offence to be prosecuted
by Transport for London. The
telecoms giant had failed to
properly signpost and guard
the work area.
bit.ly/2qGCdZj
Welfare breaches rise
Safety body the Building Safety
Group (BSG) recorded 166
welfare breaches on UK
construction sites in Q1 2018,
marking an 8% increase on the
previous quarter, when there
were 153 violations. BSG
conducted around 10,000
independent inspections for
the sector over six months.
bit.ly/2vryPHp
Trench death jail sentence
Keith Crawford, a former UKIP
parliamentary candidate who
owns a property portfolio in
Devon, has been jailed for
30 months for gross negligence
manslaughter after a trench
collapsed on a labourer, killing
him. Crawford was accused of
refusing to buy a trench box
because it was too expensive.
bit.ly/2vocyu7
Asbestos licence fraud
The HSE has prosecuted an
asbestos removal firm and two
of its managers for using forged
documents to obtain a licence to
trade. The asbestos operations
manager was handed a 12-week
prison sentence and the firm
must pay £23,000.
bit.ly/2qDKbDg
ISS correction
In the leader interview with Tim
Proctor of ISS UK in the April
issue of IOSH Magazine we
mistakenly described the group
as Finnish owned. It is in fact
Danish owned. We apologise for
any confusion caused.
bit.ly/2qG4iQs
4 MAY 2018
Opera house violist seeks £750k
damages for acoustic shock in
legal first
A musician who sustained a
life-changing hearing injury
at a Royal Opera House
(ROH) orchestra rehearsal in
London has won a landmark
case against his employer.
The High Court ruling sets
the first legal precedent for
noise-induced acoustic shock.
Chris Goldscheider, 45, was
forced to give up his musical
career after developing the
condition, the symptoms of
which include tinnitus,
hyperacusis (oversensitivity to
environmental sound) and
dizziness. He sustained
irreversible hearing damage
and is likely to claim damages
for future loss of earnings
amounting to at least
£750,000, although the final
total is still to be assessed.
Justice Nicola Davies ruled
that the ROH in Covent Garden
had breached the Control of
Noise at Work Regulations
2005.
The violist blamed his
hearing damage on acoustic
shock, which he said was caused
by brass instruments positioned
directly behind him in the
orchestra pit.
During the three-hour
rehearsal of Die Walküre (The
Valkyrie) on 1 September 2012,
the noise levels exceeded 130
decibels, roughly the equivalent
of a jet engine.
Shoddy refurb
work allowed
Grenfell fire
to spread
A leaked dossier produced
for the Metropolitan Police’s
investigation into the Grenfell
Tower tragedy reveals that poor
refurbishment contributed to
the spread of the fire that killed
The ROH has a duty to protect workers against its noisy product
The ROH provided orchestra
members with hearing
protection but did not enforce its
use. Though some of the
claimant’s colleagues in the ROH
orchestra wore earplugs
throughout the rehearsal, others
would mark up their scores to
flag noisy sections. They would
then insert earplugs in the
run-up to those sections and
remove them when they affected
their ability to hear and play.
Goldscheider adopted this
approach. But, like many
members, the violist did not
have his own score, but shared
one with other players.
According to classical music
magazine The Strad, court
documents showed the noise in a
rehearsal “created an immediate
and permanent traumatic
threshold shift”, which resulted
in acoustic shock, a condition
71 residents in London in June
2017 (bit.ly/2EPeds8).
The report by fire experts
BRE Global was leaked to
London’s Evening Standard and
reveals significant deficiencies
in the refurbishment.
Cavity barriers intended
to expand and seal the gap
between the tower’s concrete
surface and the cladding in a fire
were designed to close a 25 mm
gap, but were installed in a
50 mm gap.
For the
latest news and
comment, visit
ioshmagazine.com
© iStock/icenando
described in a medical paper as
usually triggered by “abrupt,
intense and unanticipated
acoustic stimulus”.
The ROH argued that it could
not reasonably require
musicians to wear earplugs at all
times, as a factory would,
because “the noise produced by
the professional orchestra is not
a by-product of its activities; it
is the product”.
But Justice Davies disagreed
and noted the noise regulations
“recognise no distinction as
between a factory and an opera
house”.
She said the ROH’s breach of
duty had caused the musician’s
condition.
The ROH did have options
available to protect its musicians
but had failed to safeguard their
health during the rehearsal,
she added.
Separate 150 mm gaps
between the undersized
replacement window frames and
the building frame were filled with
materials that would not provide
30 minutes’ fire resistance,
allowing flames to spread from
inside a flat to the clad facade and
back into other properties.
Almost half the door closers
on the 120 flats between the
fourth and 24th storeys were
missing or not working, the
report found.

Glazing plc fined £850k
for broken knee cap
One of the UK’s largest
window installation firms
has been fined £850,000
after a worker fell from a
leaning ladder that had been
last inspected eight years
earlier. The penalty represents
just over 6% of the firm’s
£13.8m profit before tax in the
previous financial year.
The injured fitter was working
for HPAS (which trades as
Safestyle UK) as part of a team of
five operatives carrying out a full
window and door replacement
job at a house in Doncaster,
Yorkshire, on 1 March 2017.
As the fitter was carrying a
window frame up to the
Sentencing guidelines application
Culpability:
Seriousness of harm risked:
Likelihood of harm:
Harm category:
Size of the organisation:
Turnover:
Starting point for fine: £1.1m (range from £550,000 to £2.9m)
Reduced to £850,000 for early guilty
Mitigation: plea and full co-operation with the
Financial penalty:
Off-the-shelf handling training
‘a waste of money’, HSE warns
Employers should not invest in
generic manual handling training,
the Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) has warned.
The executive has published a
new web guide (bit.ly/2Gw4BIp)
that it hopes will prevent
employers paying for generalised
training courses for lifting
after research found they were
ineffective in controlling manual
handling risks at work.
The information has been
divided into categories,
including risk assessment,
workplace organisation,
first-floor rear bedroom window,
his ladder slipped from under
him and he fell more than 3 m.
He broke a knee cap which
required surgery, Sheffield
Magistrates’ Court was told.
The Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) found the
ladder, which had been resting
on a polished concrete floor,
was not footed or tied to a
suitable point.
Inspector Stuart Whitesmith
told IOSH Magazine: “The ladder
appeared to be last safety
inspected by Safestyle in 2009.
From our point of view that was
indicative of the poor checking
systems in place.”
High
Level A
Medium
2
Large
£163m
HSE investigation
£850,000 plus £1,083 costs
attitudes and behaviour, and
uses hypothetical scenarios to
help employers to determine
what assistance they need
to tackle musculoskeletal
disorders (MSDs) among staff.
It also includes a list of
professional bodies, consultant
registers and qualification
awarding bodies that can offer
assistance.
The advice was developed
with input from more than
20 organisations including
IOSH, the British Safety Council,
manufacturers’ organisation
News
He highlighted HSE
guidance INDG455, Safe
Use of Ladders and
Stepladders, which states:
“Short duration is not
the deciding factor in
establishing whether use
of a ladder is acceptable
or not – you should have
first considered the risk.”
Safestyle complied
with the HSE’s
enforcement notice by
improving its arrange-
ments for planning and
managing work at height.
It now ensures that there
is a lead installer on
The fitter fell over 3 m from the first floor window every team to oversee the
work. If window
He served an improvement installations cannot be
notice against Safestyle over its completed inside a property,
failure to ensure work at height working platforms with
was supervised and safely carried guardrails are used.
out. “It was an area of concern The company was fined and
that ladders were being routinely ordered to pay £1,083 costs
used in a way that constituted after it pleaded guilty to
serious risk,” Whitesmith said. breaching reg 4(1) of the Work
According to the Glass and at Height Regulations. (See
Glazing Federation’s Code of table for District Judge
Practice for Working at Height Redhouse’s application of the
in the Domestic Replacement sentencing guidelines.)
Window Industry (bit.ly/ In its 2017 annual report,
2HujieK), windows should published only 13 days before
be installed from inside the the judgment, Safestyle UK plc
building if possible. anticipated a fine of between
Whitesmith said scaffold is £550,000 and £2.9m but noted
the obvious alternative when that, because the final penalty
outside access is needed, but could not be stated, the
“in this case it was reasonably management had made no
practicable to carry out the provision in the firm’s
installation internally”. accounts.
that simplistic training involving
bending your knees to lift a
cardboard box is just a waste of
time and money.
“The overall aim is to avoid
and reduce manual handling, and
that’s where employers should
start if their workforce faces
manual handling risks. Don’t
© iStock/D-Keine
start with training; start with
reorganising and redesigning
your working practices.
EEF, the National Safety Industry “If you do need staff training
Federation, the Occupational and there are many residual
Safety and Health Consultants risks where this is the case this
Register and the Parcel Carriers needs to be customised and
Safety Association. professionally delivered. Any
Launching the online tool at such training should be based
its inaugural MSD Summit on on observations of current
21 March, the HSE’s health at working practices and should
work portfolio manager, Geoff be informed by the views and
Cox, said: “Our research shows experience of the workforce.”
MAY 2018 5
News
Untrained teenager run over by road-rage
customer while directing McDonald’s traffic
Fast food chain McDonald’s has been
fined after a teenage employee was hit
by an angry motorist outside its Lakeside
Shopping Centre branch in Essex.
Danny Osborne had been asked
by his shift manager to direct
customers through the
restaurant’s car park on
18 April 2014. Road signs for
the restaurant’s drive-through
and car park entrances were
unclear and had previously
caused traffic problems.
As he did so a motorist
became aggressive, according to
a report in the Thurrock Gazette,
and drove into Osborne, who
was 17 at the time, fracturing
his knee.
Thurrock Council brought
the prosecution after its
environmental health officers
In Short
Singapore OSH chairman
John Ng has been appointed to
chair of the Workplace
Safety and Health (WSH) Council
in Singapore. Ng will lead the
WSH 2028 tripartite strategy
committee, which has been
tasked with mapping a
ten-year plan.
bit.ly/2H8dlRg
© HSE
Electrical flashover burns
A Nottinghamshire iron foundry
has been fined £60,000 after two
employees tried to bypass an
interlock on a fuse panel using
a screwdriver. They were both
seriously burned in an electrical
flashover and required surgery.
bit.ly/2EUarxm
6 MAY 2018
found McDonald’s had failed to
carry out a risk assessment for
directing motorists. Nor had it
trained its staff how to assist
traffic flow.
Basildon Crown Court was
told that less than a year before
Osborne was injured, two other
workers – one of whom was also
17 – were slightly hurt while
directing traffic outside the same
restaurant. Neither accident was
reportable under RIDDOR.
Representatives of
McDonald’s, including the
vice-president of its southern
UK operations, Jon Betts, pleaded
guilty on behalf of the
Global review site will highlight
abusive recruitment practices
A new website has been launched
to help protect migrant workers
from exploitative employment
practices.
Recruitment Advisor
(bit.ly/2vmewuL) is a recruitment
and employment review site
that provides workers with
information about recruitment
agencies and employment rights
when they are looking for a job
abroad.
More than 10,000 agencies in
Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong,
Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and
South Korea are listed on the site,
which is currently available in
English, Indonesian, Nepali and
Tagalog.
Workers can comment on their
experiences with an agency and
rate it from one to five stars for
costs, pre-departure orientation
sessions, the contract of
organisation to breaching s 2(2)
(c) of the Health and Safety at
Work Act and s 3(1)(a) of the
Management of Health and
Safety at Work Regulations.
Recorder Philip
Brook-Smith fined the company
£200,000 and ordered it to pay
£26,343 in costs. Osborne was
awarded £1,000 in compensation.
Richard Heller, prosecuting,
said: “At no stage had the
company contemplated that
employees may have been at risk
from either an accidental or
deliberate collision.”
A McDonald’s spokesperson
told IOSH Magazine: “At the time
[our West Thurrock] restaurant
was wholly owned and run by
McDonald’s Restaurants
Limited and has since been
taken over by a franchisee.
“The safety of both our
customers and people is our
priority and we have apologised
employment and conditions in the
destination country.
The International Trade
Union Confederation (ITUC)
developed the platform with
support from the International
Labour Organization’s (ILO) Fair
Recruitment Initiative, launched in
2015 to counter human trafficking
and protect workers from abusive
and fraudulent practices during
recruitment and placement.
Governments of the target
countries provided the lists of
licensed agencies. Eventually,
those that follow a fair
recruitment process based on
the ILO’s General Principles and
Operational Guidelines for Fair
Recruitment (bit.ly/2Hs1GAf) will
be promoted on the site.
Recruitment Advisor will also
provide feedback to governments
on agencies’ working practices.
This information could be used to
unreservedly to the employee in
question for what took place.
“This was an unusual car park
layout and following the incident
we immediately took temporary
measures to alter the flow of
traffic in the car park until
planning permission could
be sought for permanent
alterations. The permanent
structural alterations made in
September 2014 improved the
layout of the car park, meaning
that none of our employees are
required to assist with traffic
management.
“During the trial the health
and safety procedures we have
put in place throughout the
restaurant portfolio were
praised by the judge. He said
‘McDonald’s procedures are
very thorough [...] I accept
and have seen evidence of
McDonald’s rigorous approach
to procedures’.”
complement more conventional
monitoring systems because
migrant workers are particularly
vulnerable to abuse during
recruitment, according to the
ITUC.
Its general secretary, Sharan
Burrow, said: “Unscrupulous
recruitment agencies take
advantage of the lack of law
enforcement by governments or
because workers are simply not
aware of their rights. It’s time
to put power back into workers’
hands to rate the recruitment
agencies and show whether their
promises of jobs and wages are
delivered.”
Alix Nasri, technical
specialist at the ILO, added:
“This platform can help migrant
workers to make critical choices
at the time of planning their
journey to work in a foreign
country. We know that, when a
worker is recruited fairly, the
risk of ending in forced labour is
drastically reduced. We strongly
encourage workers to share their
experiences so others can learn
from them.”
 Column
Richard Jones CFIOSH
Head of policy and public affairs, IOSH

Five years after the Rana Plaza factory collapse in

Bangladesh, in which more than 1,100 people died, we
must take stock of progress to strengthen international
supply-chain safety and health and the work that is still
urgently needed.
After the appalling disaster in 2013, IOSH was pleased
to host joint-stakeholder events to promote the new
five-year Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety
(bit.ly/1DbFEWg). The accord is an innovative and legally
binding initiative that brings together big brand names and
trade unions to help to tackle the serious safety and health
problems that Rana Plaza typified.
Public accessibility of corrective action plans and
inspection reports is a positive feature of the accord.
So too are its inspection programme, remediation work,
training, health and safety committees, complaints
mechanisms and the right to refuse unsafe work. This is
particularly important when we remember reports that
Rana Plaza workers felt pressured into continuing to work
despite dangerous cracks in the building.
Five years on, a report
summarises its achievements,
Public accessibility citing 83% of safety issues verified
of corrective as fixed or pending verification.
The total for electrical defects is
action plans and 92.7%; fire 82.2%; and structural
inspection reports
is a positive feature
70.6%. The report says 699 out of
1,631 factories have reached more
than 90% remediation, but “major
HELPING YOU
MAKE A REAL
life-threatening safety concerns
remain outstanding in too many factories”.
The Bangladesh government has now agreed the accord

DIFFERENCE
will continue until substantial additional enforcement
capacity is developed and a national regulatory body can
take over. There is a joint monitoring committee made up
of accord brands and union signatories, the Bangladesh
Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the
International Labour Organization, and the Bangladesh
government. This will conduct biannual reviews and agree
when conditions for “handover” are met, followed by a
Health and Safety
six-month transition.
The transition accord already has 140 brands signed up, Environmental Management
from Europe, the US, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Turkey.
It strengthens the previous accord by voluntary expansion
to industries such as home textiles, fabric and knitted
Training & Consultancy Worldwide
accessories.
Upskilling at grassroots level is vital and even small-scale Worldwide Training Centres
projects can help. IOSH was pleased to co-fund the OHS
Initiative for Workers and Community in Bangladesh. This Corporate Services • London, Birmingham,
project reported the awarding of certificates to delegates • Incompany Training Manchester, Newcastle,
last year as part of its Train the Trainer programme. The • Consultancy Leeds, Glasgow, Aberdeen
20-day training course used interactive audiovisual
• Site Safety Management • Dubai, Georgia, Ghana,
materials and participation, as well as visits to garment
factories to gain experience. It will now be circulated across Sudan, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey
the sector, potentially helping to save and transform lives.
More widely, the past five years have brought several
supply chain-related developments. The ISO 20400
guidance helps organisations to ensure their procurement
is socially responsible, consistent with the United Nations’
sustainable development goals, which include healthy lives
www.rrc.co.uk
and wellbeing for all ages and decent work for all. The new +44 (0)20 8944 3100
ISO 45001 standard also requires an organisation to have
processes to control the procurement so that they conform info@rrc.co.uk
to its OSH management system.
To extend risk management as far into the supply chain
as organisations have control and influence, we need
responsible procurement, setting realistic timescales and
costings and working with suppliers to raise standards.

MAY 2018 7
News
Pledge to cut high-hazard
industry deaths in N Ireland
The Health and Safety
Executive for Northern Ireland
(HSENI) has pledged to reduce
fatal and serious workplace
accidents by 10% over the next
five years.
The target is part of the
HSENI’s new draft corporate plan
for 2018-2023, a consultation for
which was launched at the
beginning of April.
Workplace fatalities in sectors
regulated by the HSENI have
fluctuated over the past ten
years, between six in 2009-10
and 23 in 2014-15. Sixteen people
were killed at work in the 12
months to the end of March 2017.
The figures indicate that the
downward trend in serious
injuries has levelled off and has
been flat since 2014-15 when
36 workers were badly hurt.
Corporate Plan 2018-2023 says:
“Since 2006 approximately
9% of major accidents result in
serious injuries and 3% result in
fatalities. On average we see
54 serious and fatal accidents per
year. We aim to reduce this total
by 10% to no more than 50 per
annum on average.”
Royal Mail fined £1.6m over
yard marshal’s multiple injuries
Royal Mail has been accused of
failing to learn from previous
incidents after a yard marshal
was hit by a lorry at a yard
outside its Jubilee Mail Centre
in Hounslow, west London.
The postal company has
been fined £1.6m over the
incident – its largest-ever
penalty for a safety offence.
According to the
Communication Workers Union
(CWU), the worker was struck by
a 7.5 tonne large goods vehicle
on 12 December 2014.
He was knocked
unconscious and sustained
multiple serious injuries,
8 MAY 2018
The HSENI also has set out a
mission to cut the number of
major accidents in Northern
Ireland by 10% to no more than
350 a year and reduce over-
three-day accidents by 5% to
no more than 1,700 a year on
average.
It said that in the term of its
previous corporate plan the
major workplace accident
annual average was 393 and the
yearly average number of cases
of employees unable to perform
their normal work duties for
more than three consecutive
days due to an injury was 1,791.
The document proposes a
sector-based approach and
specifies the challenges and
priorities in key industry sectors.
In agriculture, the HSENI
says it will prioritise guarding
dangerous moving parts of
machinery, safe animal
handling, slurry safety and
work at height.
According to its statistics on
RIDDOR (the Reporting of
Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrences Regulations)
incidents from 2011 to 2017, 42 of
including a fractured jaw and
several broken ribs.
Isleworth Crown Court was
told that the London Borough
of Hounslow, which brought
the prosecution, found Royal
Mail had failed to carry out risk
assessments. It reportedly had
no monitoring or supervision
on site. It had given workers no
safety information or training
and had failed to maintain
safe workplace transport
arrangements, including road
markings and signage.
A Hounslow council
spokesperson said: “During
the course of the extensive
the 49 fatalities and 44 of the 79
major injuries in the sector
resulted from animals, falls,
equipment and slurry.
In the construction sector, the
HSENI plans to educate the
54,000-strong workforce on
working at height, the
Construction (Design and
Management) Regulations,
demolition, asbestos removal and
occupational lung disease and
cancer.
The latter diseases plus
mental health and musculo-
skeletal disorders are priorities
in the draft plan.
Since 2009, 63 people a year
on average have died from either
mesothelioma or asbestosis in
Northern Ireland, according to
the regulator. It says the
non-identification of
asbestos-containing materials
before work starts and
insufficient awareness and
training of workers about the
dangers of asbestos are the main
challenges. It aims to tackle
these by fully implementing the
asbestos licensing regime and
inspecting licensed asbestos
investigations, a number
of safety failures were
identified at the Royal Mail
depot. Royal Mail was served
an improvement notice that
required improvements to keep
staff and visitors safe. These
improvements have since been
implemented in full.”
The same types of
accident seem to
crop up
Royal Mail pleaded guilty to
breaching s 2(1) of the Health
and Safety at Work Act on
7 December 2017.
Passing sentence, the judge
said that the company’s breach
of safety regulations had
removal to ensure safe standards
are followed.
●● The Health and Safety
Authority in the Republic of
Ireland targeted transport
operations and vehicles at
work during a two-week
inspection blitz and
awareness drive last month.
Over the past six years, 45%
of all reported work-related
fatalities have involved
vehicles. In 2017, 22 people
died in vehicle-related
accidents. Inspectors looked at
pedestrian management near
moving vehicles, reversing
and slow speed manoeuvres,
loading and unloading,
vehicle maintenance, and
certification of workplace
transport.
resulted in a high likelihood
of harm. He had initially
calculated a fine of £2.4m,
but reduced it by one-third
to reflect the company’s early
guilty plea.
In 2016 Royal Mail was fined
£50,000 after a reach truck
ran over an employee’s foot
at a mail bundling centre in
Rochester, Kent.
The previous year it was
fined £40,000 after a fleet
technician sustained chemical
burns after being told to use
faulty cleaning equipment
in Hemel Hempstead,
Hertfordshire, while the fatal
crushing of a lorry driver at
its Heathrow yard cost the
company £90,000 in 2010.
Royal Mail was fined £250,000
in 2006 after a worker plunged
9 m through the roof of the West

Third of construction workers
don’t check asbestos registers
One construction worker in
three has never checked a
site’s asbestos register before
starting work, according to
new research commissioned
by IOSH.
An Opinium survey of 500
workers found that 32% of
respondents have never checked
the register before starting
work on a new site. Almost
half of these (15% of the total
sample) do not know about
asbestos registers.
The survey was conducted
ahead of the launch of the
fourth phase of IOSH’s No Time
to Lose occupational cancer
campaign on 9 April (see p 17).
Nearly one in four workers
(23%) told Opinium that they
Asbestos removal operative wet spraying
London Mail Centre. And in 2003
it was ordered to pay a £200,000
penalty after a pensioner was
fatally struck by a lorry as he
collected a package from the
Bridgend delivery office.
Dave Joyce, the CWU’s
national health and safety
officer, said: “This catalogue
of deaths and serious injuries
believed they may have been including spray coatings,
exposed to asbestos fibres. lagging, insulation board,
Although 59% of rope, yarn and cloth.
respondents said they had The Health and Safety
been told about the risks posed Executive estimates that
by asbestos and had had this at least 5,000 people die
reinforced regularly through every year in the UK from
training, 15% said that they an asbestos-related cancer
had never been informed. caused by workplace exposure,
Almost one in five (18%) including the deadliest form
admitted they would either be of cancer, mesothelioma.
unsure or have no idea what to Worldwide, asbestos claims
do if they found asbestos. more than 107,000 lives a year.
Dr Lesley Rushton, chair IOSH highlighted a suite of
of the UK’s Industrial Injuries free practical resources to help
Advisory Council, said: “What businesses to reduce asbestos
these new survey results exposure, including a leaflet
confirm is that, while people for employees that covers the
have heard of asbestos and risks and protection measures
know what the effects of being and case studies sharing good
exposed to it are, they are not practice tips and experiences.
sure how to check if it’s IOSH has collaborated
present and they may with experts, supporter
not know what to do if organisations, leading OSH
they find asbestos.” practitioners and the UK’s
It is banned in Asbestos Leadership Group to
62 countries. Although produce campaign materials.
the UK restricted the Asbestos management
material in 1999, many practices at developer Landsec
buildings constructed – the sole client member of
before then contain it. the Asbestos Leadership Group
Asbestos can be found – are featured on p 36 of this
© ARCA
in many products, issue.
and near-misses. The same
types of accident seem to crop
up and they are easily avoidable
if you learn from past mistakes.
Safety procedures are not being
enforced.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson told
IOSH Magazine: “We took steps
© Paul Marnef/REX/Shutterstock
immediately after the accident
to address the issues at this site.
We improved the road markings,
made the pedestrian walkways
clearer, updated the signage in
the yard to make it consistent with
to Royal Mail workers and highway signage, and installed an
members of the public doesn’t electronic speed display board at
make good reading. Obviously the entrance of the yard.
we’re concerned about this “This was an isolated
situation and want Royal Mail to incident that is not
look at the causes. representative of our first-
“Royal Mail’s yard safety class approach to safety or our
record isn’t good and is causing commitment to ensuring a safe
concern and disquiet. I’m very working environment for all our
concerned about the accidents employees.”
News
In Short
Carcinogen exposure limits
The European Commission has
proposed to include new
exposure limits for five
chemicals in the Carcinogens
and Mutagens Directive. They
include cadmium, beryllium,
arsenic acid and formaldehyde.
bit.ly/2qIuTMH
Trench injury fine
KDS Construction has been
fined £70,000 after an over-
hanging and unsupported piece
of concrete broke off a ring
beam and struck an employee
on the head. He was in a 2 m
deep excavation carrying out
groundworks for a new drainage
system at the time.
bit.ly/2HF2ajW
CONIAN website launch
The HSE’s Construction
Industry Advisory Network
(CONIAN) has launched a
community website with
information to help workers
to reduce risks on projects.
CONIAN is a stakeholder
network which advises the
Construction Industry Advisory
Committee.
bit.ly/2IHZXVf
Caravan crushed worker
Holiday park operator Park
Resorts has been fined £133,000
after a 67-year-old maintenance
worker was crushed under a
caravan at Coopers Beach
Holiday Park in Essex. The
company said it had failed to
follow its own safe systems
of work for moving caravans.
bit.ly/2HI3frn
First aid training in Qatar
The Ministry of Municipality
and Environment (MME) in Qatar
has launched phase two of its
Risks, Crises, Emergencies,
Disasters, Occupational and
Environmental Health and
Safety programme to train
workers in first aid. It will run
for six months and about 300
employees will receive training.
bit.ly/2HclaJF
MAY 2018 9
News
Judge says Poundworld
can ‘pay any fine’ and
levies £1.2m for hygiene
and housekeeping failings
A South London branch
of discount chain store
Poundworld has been fined
nearly £1.2m after a judge
concluded it could afford a
substantial penalty.
Poundworld, which
admitted five food safety
offences and two health and
safety breaches at an earlier
hearing, refused to divulge the
accounts of its parent
company.
However, Croydon Crown
Court was told that in May
2015 Poundworld had been
acquired by Poundworld Bidco
on behalf of funds controlled
by TPG Capital, a global
private equity investment firm
with assets worth more than
£57m.
Restricted chemicals found
in hundreds of EU goods
The European Chemicals Agency
(ECHA) has advised companies
to obtain information on the
chemical composition of their
products from suppliers after
a project found hundreds of
products were in breach of
the EU chemical safety
regulation REACH.
ECHA’s Enforcement Forum
co-ordinated the REACH-
En-Force-4 (REF-4) project to
test consumer products for
22 restricted chemicals listed
in REACH Annex XVII. These
include asbestos, benzene, lead,
phthalates and toluene.
Throughout 2016 inspectors in
27 EU and EEA countries checked
5,625 products, including plastics,
glues, spray paints and brazing
fillers, for restricted substances.
They found that 82% of products
complied with the REACH
restrictions but 18% did not.
10 MAY 2018
Croydon Council brought
the prosecution after visiting
Poundworld’s store in North
End, Croydon, in February
2016. Food safety officers had
responded to a complaint from
a customer, who had seen
rodent faeces on the shop
floor. When officers arrived,
they found an out-of-control
infestation.
On further inspection, they
found that some areas of the
basement and storage areas
were in darkness. The goods
lift was not working so staff
had to carry stock up to the
shop floor. No risk assessment
had been carried out for this
activity.
Officers also found there
was no hot water, inadequate
In Forum REF-4 Project Report:
harmonised enforcement project
on restrictions (bit.ly/2q3fkyR),
the ECHA said the non-compliance
rate “was high considering that
REACH restrictions have been
assigned to uses of chemicals with
the highest risks to health or the
environment”.
The most frequent breaches
were: phthalates in toys (20% of
the sample contained phthalates
above permitted levels), cadmium
in brazing fillers (14%) and
asbestos fibres in products (14%).
Inspectors also found high
concentrations of chromium
VI in leather goods (13% of the
testing products) and cadmium
in jewellery (12%).
Overall, most of the products
that breached chemical
restrictions had been imported
from China (17%) or their origins
could not be traced.
Mouse droppings surrounded stock at the North End, Croydon store
heating and poor house-
keeping, which resulted in
stock being left in a haphazard
and dangerous position.
The shop was dirty and
littered with mouse droppings.
Food on display was gnawed
and rodent urine and faeces
were found over packaging and
products. Adhesive tape had
been placed over packaging
that had been gnawed and the
products returned to the shop
shelves for sale.
The court’s request for
details of TPG’s finances were
“respectfully declined” by the
defendant’s counsel on the
The report says: “[These
findings] highlight the companies’
responsibility to get information
on the chemical composition
of their products from their
suppliers. This may also include
proactively testing the products
and making agreements between
suppliers so that the chemical
composition complies with the
chemicals legislation.”
The UK inspected 444
products, behind Germany (1,757),
Belgium (516) and Sweden (467).
© Croydon Council
basis that Poundworld, TPG
and other companies are not
linked organisations.
Her Honour Judge Smaller
said: “In the absence of being
given sufficient reliable
information, I am entitled to
draw reasonable inferences that
Poundworld can pay any fine.”
Poundworld was fined
£660,000 for the food hygiene
offences and £500,000 for one
of the health and safety
offences – with no separate
penalty for the second –
on 9 March.
It must also pay costs
of £30,410.
In the Republic
of Ireland,
inspectors from
the Health and
Safety Authority
(HSA) found all
of the 16 glues
and adhesives it
assessed were
compliant and
did not contain
the restricted
chemicals benzene,
chloroform or
toluene.
Kevin Buckley,
© ECHA
the HSA’s senior
inspector, said: “Importers,
manufacturers and distributors
should be aware of the legal
requirements governing the
safety of products containing
restricted chemicals. Retailers
[...] should check with their
suppliers to ensure that their
existing stock is compliant and
all non-compliant stock should
be removed from the shelves.”
Read our feature on the UK’s
relationship with REACH after
Brexit on p 24.
 News

Builder undermined ‘worst’ legacy material

A builder who failed to act on advice After undermining the

from a structural engineer before a

bungaroosh walls, Peters
failed to follow a structural
house in Brighton part collapsed engineer’s recommendations
on stabilising the property,
has been jailed. resulting in the gable wall
giving way and the ground
floor falling into the

© The Voice of Hassocks

Hove Crown Court was told that
Glen Peters (trading as Brow
Builders) undermined the
structural integrity of the
building by digging out the
basement in February 2015.
The building’s walls were
constructed of bungaroosh, a
composite of rubble in a
hydraulic lime mortar poured
into shuttering and allowed to
set. It was used for structural
walls mainly in Brighton and
Hove between the mid-18th and
late-19th centuries, when the
towns were expanding rapidly
and bricks were expensive. The
porous composite is susceptible
to rot and can become friable in
either excessively damp or dry
conditions.
The Institute of Historic
Building Conservation’s
magazine reports that the
aggregate for bungaroosh was
commonly “flints, brick rubble,
lumps of chalk, pieces of wood
and anything else that came to
hand”. It is described by one
specialist on an online forum as
the “worst building material in
the world”. The article quotes a
Brighton conservation officer
saying: “You could probably
demolish a third of the city with
a well-aimed hose.”
basement.
He failed to report the
incident to the Health and
Bungaroosh loses integrity when too wet or dry
Safety Executive (HSE) under
the Reporting of Injuries,
Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrences Regulations
(RIDDOR).
Nearby homes had to be
evacuated and the area
cordoned off over fears the
public was at risk.
The HSE said Peters did not
have enough knowledge of
bungaroosh. It said those
working on properties made
from the legacy material “must
fully understand what they are
dealing with” because the
buildings are “more challenging
in terms of structural stability”.
Peters pleaded guilty to
breaching reg 25(1) of the
Construction (Design and
Management) Regulations 2007
and reg 7 of RIDDOR. He was
sentenced to five months in
prison for count one and two
months for count two, to run
concurrently. He was also
ordered to pay costs of £7,000.

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MAY 2018 11
News
Tesco COSHH breaches left employee
with chemical burns
Supermarket giant Tesco has been
prosecuted after a worker with
learning disabilities sustained a
chemical burn to one of his eyes.
The employee at the Tesco
Extra store in Highwoods
Square, Colchester, Essex, was
cleaning an oven on 5 May 2016
when the chemical cleaner
splashed his face. He was not
wearing goggles and his left
eye and eyelid were burned.
Chelmsford Magistrates’
Court was told that the
employee’s manager was
aware he had difficulties
following written and verbal
instructions.
Health
surveillance
ignorance costs
door firm £50k
A door manufacturer has been
fined after an employee was
exposed to hand-arm vibration.
Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’
Court was told that the Design
and Supply employee developed
hand-arm vibration syndrome
(HAVS) from using handheld
pneumatic buffing and sanding
tools for more than 15 years.
A Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) investigation
found several failings, including
the lack of a health surveillance
programme, which is vital to
identify symptoms at an early
stage, it said.
The HSE found there were
poor measures to control the risk
of developing HAVS from power
tools because the company had
not carried out a risk assessment
or implemented a safe system
of work.
As a result workers were
exposed to vibration levels that
12 MAY 2018
A health and safety officer
for Colchester Borough
Council, which brought the
prosecution, carried out an
investigation after an accident
report was filed and served an
improvement notice on the
company.
He found safety goggles
were available but were not
properly looked after and
stored when not in use.
Tesco pleaded guilty to
breaching s 2(1) of the Health
Air-fed tools were used with no SSoW
had not been reduced as low as
reasonably practicable.
In addition, workers had not
been trained in the safe use of
power tools and there was a
lack of supervision on site.
Design and Supply was
fined £50,000 and ordered to
pay £1,882 costs after pleading
guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the
Health and Safety at Work Act.
HSE inspector Lee Jones said:
“This was a case of the company
completely failing to understand
the importance of assessing the
risk to its employees from
exposure to vibration.”
and Safety at Work Act and
regs 6 and 7 of the Control of
Substances Hazardous to
Health (COSHH) Regulations.
It was fined £116,000 and
ordered to pay £10,625 costs.
Tina Bourne, cabinet
member for housing and
Widow receives damages
over asbestos death
The widow of a former pipe
lagger who died after he
was exposed to asbestos
has been awarded £340,000
compensation.
He died aged 64 in June
2016 from asbestosis.
According to the labour
union GMB, of which the
worker was a member, he was
exposed to considerable
amounts of the harmful fibres
while fitting asbestos lagging
during the 1960s and 1970s.
He was an apprentice at
Spousal (Midlands) before
going on to work for Cape
Darlington.
After his diagnosis, the
victim obtained a provisional
damages order in 2008
allowing him to return
to court if the condition
worsened.
He restarted his claim in
May 2016 but died a month
later, before it was settled.
His widow continued with
the claim for damages.
© iStock/TonyBaggett
communities at Colchester
Borough Council, said: “We are
now satisfied that the Tesco
Extra store in Highwoods has
made improvements and it is
no longer using the chemical
and has reviewed its COSHH
assessments.”
© iStock/j4m3z
Paul Maloney, regional
secretary at GMB Southern
Region, said: “There are tens
of thousands of GMB members
and ex-members who have
worked with asbestos and may
be affected. They should
contact the GMB immediately
if they have has any exposure
to asbestos, however small.
“This could include anyone
who works or has worked in
schools and hospitals –
construction workers,
electricians, pipe fitters,
carpenters and so on.”
(See p 17 for information on
IOSH’s new campaign against
asbestos-related occupational
cancer.)

Regulator revises ruling on outback nurse’s
death after murder trial in South Australia
South Australia’s OSH regulator has
reclassified the murder of a nurse while
she was on call at home as work-related
and reopened its investigation.
A spokesperson from SafeWork
SA said its executive director
Martyn Campbell’s review into
the agency’s handling of nurse
Gayle Woodford’s death in
March 2016 had concluded that
the original ruling that it was
not work-related was
incorrect.
According to the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation (ABC),
Woodford, a nurse with almost
The business book club
Andrew Sharman CFIOSH Chief executive, RMS
Lessons from classic management texts
It has sold more than three
million copies since it was first
published in 2001, and always
pops up on lists of best business
books. What can Good to Great
teach us about improving
workplace safety and health?
Jim Collins’s team studied
6,000 journal articles and
generated more than 2,000 pages
of interview transcripts in a five-
year project as they researched
the 1,435 largest US companies.
From these they identified 11 that
had excelled.
We choose how
our influence
comes across
Collins explains the factors and
variables that permit a fraction
of businesses to move from being
good to great. Sure, the label is
subjective, but the book defines it
clearly in terms of bottom line and
people, and then goes on to show
how leadership, management,
five years’ experience, was on
call in the remote community of
Fregon when convicted sex
offender Dudley Davey lured her
out of the security enclosure
round her home. He then raped
and murdered her.
After his arrest, Davey had
admitted he had drawn the
nurse out of her home by saying
that his grandmother needed a
painkiller.
personnel and
operational
practices, behaviours
and attitudes are
the keys to stellar
performance.
Collins warns that
good is the enemy
of great, explaining
that operational
discipline (of people,
thought and action)
is the foundation for
greatness.
Quality of Good to Great, Jim Collins,
leadership is key. At all William Collins 2001
levels, from competent
supervision to strategic decision-
making, a mix of determination
and profound humility is needed.
Leadership guru Simon Sinek
suggests we start by asking “why?”.
For Collins it’s all about “who?”.
Rigorously selecting, encouraging
and empowering people to make
an active contribution every day
is key. As Collins says, every bus
needs a driver, but also the right
people in all the key seats. And
then having these people focus on
the “brutal facts” by leading with
Woodford worked for
Nganampa Health Council as
the occupational health and
safety representative for
Fregon clinic, which lies
137 km from Stuart Highway,
a 2,834 km road that runs
through the centre of
Australia and connects
Darwin in the Northern
Territory to Port Augusta in
South Australia.
ABC reported that the health
council had a suite of safety
policies for on-call work. These
required nurses to make
personal risk assessments about
whether to step outside the
cages that enclosed staff
quarters.
great questions
rather than
answers, engaging
in dialogue
and debate,
not coercion;
conducting
“autopsies” without
blame; and building
mechanisms to
red-flag critical
issues.
At the heart of
super success is
what Collins calls
the hedgehog
concept, doing
one thing better than everyone
else, like the eponymous creature
rolling into a spiky ball at the first
sign of attack.
Collins asks three questions:
What are you deeply passionate
about? What drives your economic
engine? What can you be best in
the world at? I suspect that “safety
and health” answers all three for
this magazine’s readers.
A cautionary note here – no
matter the threat, the hedgehog
maintains its focus on the same
News
© iStock/PetroGraphy
Since Woodford’s death, the
health council has removed the
personal risk assessment
framework and introduced a
community escort system.
Patients are no longer allowed
to visit nurses’ homes, and
nurses are never on call alone.
strategy every time, digging in and
doing it way better than anything
else rather than trying lots of
things and hoping one works.
A culture of discipline is
necessary for greatness to
flourish, catalysed by a strong
sense of determination in every
individual, no matter their level in
the hierarchy. Collins warns that
to be great we must first learn
how to pause, think, crawl, walk,
and then run, rather than leap on
technology as a panacea.
The criticality of momentum is
underlined, and how we maximise
positivity (Collins calls this the
flywheel) to energise staff and
build commitment, or generate
negativity (the doom loop)
through short-term decision-
making or trying to do everything
at once. We choose how our
influence comes across.
In closing, the book encourages
sustainability through a mesh of
values that transcend revenue
generation and operational
leadership. This, like its other
lessons, is superbly relevant to
the world of OSH.
MAY 2018 13
News
Network Rail fined £733k over track dips
that caused train to derail
Network Rail Infrastructure The train driver was unaware
has been fined £733,000 of the derailment and continued
after its track maintenance to Gloucester station where the
team failed to carry out train was stopped by a signaller,
repair work that would have who suspected there was a
prevented a train derailing problem with the train because
near Gloucester. of damage to the signalling
The incident happened at system.
around 8.15pm on 15 October By the time the train had
2013, 6.4 km south west of stopped, the rear wagon was
Gloucester station on the line badly damaged, the 5.9 tonne
from Newport via Lydney. empty container it was carrying
The freight train, operated had dislodged and fallen down
by Direct Rail Services, was an embankment, and there was
travelling at 111 kph when the damage to more than 6 km of
rear wheelset of the last wagon track, signalling cables, four
derailed on track that had dips level crossings and two bridges.
in the rails. An investigation found that
The defect, known as cyclic maintenance workers’ short-
top, had formed due to water and medium-term repairs to
flowing under the track and level the cyclic top were
was the immediate cause of ineffective and the planned
the incident, the Rail Accident long-term solution had not
Investigation Branch (RAIB) been implemented.
found. In its 2014 accident report,
The problem was the RAIB said: “The severity of
exacerbated by inadequate the dips required immediate
drainage. action by Network Rail,
In Short
Met Police admits colluding
Shoreham crash pilot
charged with manslaughter with construction blacklisters
Andrew Hill, 53, will be charged
with manslaughter by gross
negligence of 11 people who died Officers from London’s
when his jet smashed into the Metropolitan Police special
A27 road during the August 2015 branch units secretly
Shoreham Air Show. infiltrated trade unions and
passed on information to
bit.ly/2qBfMFN blacklisting organisation the
Consulting Association.
The Met’s deputy assistant
commissioner, Richard Martin,
made the admission in a letter
responding to a complaint
made by the Blacklist Support
© Kris Tripplaar/Sipa USA/REX/Shutterstock Group (BSG) to the Independent
Driverless car killed woman Police Complaints Commission.
Pedestrian Elaine Herzberg was The letter said: “Allegation:
killed when she was struck by Police, including special
one of Uber’s self-driving cars in branches, supplied information
Arizona, US. The Volvo XC90 SUV that appears on the blacklist,
was travelling at about funded by the country’s
65 kph and there was a safety major construction firms. The
driver behind the wheel. report concludes that [...] the
allegation that the police or
bit.ly/2vp2AZd special branches supplied
14 MAY 2018
including the
imposition of a speed
restriction for the
trains passing over
it, but no such
restriction had been
put in place. Speed
restrictions had
repeatedly been
imposed since
The derailed last wagon shed a shipping container
December 2011 but
were removed each
time repair work was completed;
on each occasion, such work
subsequently proved to be
ineffective.”
The report made seven
recommendations, four of
which were directed at Network
Rail and covered reviewing the
drainage, revising how speed
restrictions for track defects
are managed, providing
maintenance staff with a way
to measure cyclic top after
completing repairs, and
investigating how the defect
can be repaired effectively.
information is ‘proven’.
Material revealed a potentially
improper flow of information
from special branch to external
organisations, which ultimately
appeared on the blacklist.”
The letter follows a six-year
investigation by Scotland Yard.
Officers were first accused of
colluding with the now defunct
Consulting Association in 2012.
It followed an investigation by
David Clancy of the Information
Commissioner’s Office who had
uncovered the business three
years earlier.
BSG secretary Dave Smith
said: “When we first talked about
police collusion in blacklisting,
people looked at us as if we were
conspiracy theorists.”
The Consulting Association’s
secret database of more than
© RAIB
Tom Wake, head of Network
Rail route teams at regulator
Office of Rail and Road, said:
“Given Network Rail’s failure
to remedy this ongoing fault,
it was only a matter of time
before a derailment took
place, creating a genuine
risk to passengers and the
public.
“In this instance it was
extremely fortunate that the
loose container did not fall
into the path of an oncoming
train or cause injury to the
public as it fell.”
3,200 building workers had been
used by some of the UK’s largest
construction firms to identify
potential “troublemakers” –
including those who reported
safety failings – and deny them
work. Those involved include
Balfour Beatty, Carillion,
Costain, Kier, Sir Robert
McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci.
Trade union Unite is
now considering whether to
launch further legal action
on behalf of its members who
were blacklisted. It is already
seeking compensation on
behalf of more than
70 blacklisted construction
workers over cases for breach
of privacy and for Data
Protection Act offences and
will now investigate whether
to pursue the police in legal
action, the union said.
Lawyers at Leigh Day
acting for the GMB have filed a
freedom of information request
for the Met’s full internal
investigation report.
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IOSH News
Cathy Newman returns to chair IOSH 2018
Cathy Newman is returning to chair
IOSH’s annual conference for a
second year.
After excellent feedback from
delegates at last year’s
conference, the respected
journalist and TV presenter
will chair IOSH 2018.
Cathy has fronted many
TV documentaries and hosted
GMTV’s The Sunday Programme.
She has also written for The Daily
Telegraph and served as chief
political correspondent for the
Financial Times.
The event is being held from
17-18 September at the ICC in
Birmingham, UK, on the theme
“Shape a new world of work”.
Sue Bull, IOSH’s conference
producer, said: “Cathy was
highly rated by delegates who
attended the IOSH annual
conference last year, with 98%
saying she was good or better;
high praise indeed. So I didn’t
hesitate in inviting her to chair
again.
IOSH to host APOSHO 33
In December, IOSH will host the
premier Asia-Pacific OSH
conference in Hong Kong,
APOSHO 33. Members are
invited to submit and present
at this global event. We asked
president-elect Vincent Ho for
more details.
What is APOSHO and why is
IOSH involved?
The Asia-Pacific Occupational
Safety and Health Organization
(APOSHO) is an international
body composed of non-
profit professional organisations
devoted to the prevention of
occupational accidents and
diseases. Although full
membership is given to non-
governmental organisations in
the Asia-Pacific region, any
occupational safety and health
organisations, even in the
regions other than Asia-Pacific,
16 MAY 2018
“Working with Cathy before
and during the two days of the
conference was a fantastic
experience. She was very easy to
work with, a consummate
professional throughout, and did
an exceptional job by being well
planned, adaptable and prepared
across both days.
“She was really interested in
the conference and met all the
mainstage speakers before-
hand to go through their
introductions to ensure they
were at ease and knew what
to expect. Cathy has all the
qualities, skills and knowledge
you need for a good conference
chair and I am looking forward
to working with her again
enormously.”
The conference will
combine presentations from
motivational and industry
experts with practical and
can join APOSHO as associate
or affiliate members.
Membership includes
40 organisations from 23
different countries or districts,
including Australia, China,
Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia,
Mauritius, Thailand and Vietnam.
What key topics will be
covered?
Conference topics include:
IOSH president-elect Vincent Ho
Cathy Newman will chair IOSH 2018 at the ICC in Birmingham in September
interactive track sessions and
networking opportunities. The
four tracks will be:
●● Track A - Enhancing your
professional skills
●● Track B - Health, wellbeing
and workplace performance
●● Track C - Effective health
and safety management
communicating the safety
message; how collaboration can
make work safer; incorporat-
ing OSH into the sustainability
agenda; innovation – new ways of
working; and how communicating
wellbeing means healthier work
(occupational and mental health).
Why should companies and
businesses get involved?
APOSHO 33 will provide an
attractive platform for both
local and overseas professionals
to exchange ideas, share
experiences on initiatives and
to bring about co-operation. The
conference will help you open
new doors and establish new
networks.
How can companies and
individuals get involved?
Companies and individuals are
encouraged to submit papers
and attend the conference, and
companies can become our
corporate sponsors or exhibitors.
As a conference sponsor, you
●● Track D – The changing
world of work.
Those who book their place
before 21 July will save £150
with the early bird discount.
For more details on the
conference, visit:
www.ioshconference.com
will join me and many influential
government officials for our
delightful and engaging
reception. Representatives
from renowned organisations
and professionals from various
industries will also attend. Your
sponsorship of APOSHO 33 is
invaluable in making the event
a success and sends a strong
message that your company is a
leader in health, safety and
quality management services.
Why is Hong Kong such a
great place for this event?
Hong Kong is the gateway for
IOSH members to establish
networks with new contacts in
regions nearby – particularly as
the local branch has the largest
safety membership in the region.
For more information about
APOSHO 33, including how
to submit your paper and
to secure your place at this
world-class event, visit: www.
ioshwork2022.com/aposho33
 IOSH News

Time to fight ‘despicable disease In Short

head-on’ NTTL shortlisted for award
The third phase of IOSH’s No
Time to Lose (NTTL) campaign –
Mesothelioma is a “despicable silica – has been shortlisted for
disease” but there is an a prestigious public relations
opportunity to “fight it head- award. The campaign was
on”, delegates heard at the selected in March as one of six
launch of the fourth phase in the international category of
of IOSH’s No Time to Lose the Chartered Institute of Public
(NTTL) campaign. Relations Excellence Awards
Key stakeholders and 2018. It is in competition with
industry professionals were global campaigns by Vodafone,
told how the institution plans Bushmills Whiskey, Brewdog
to raise awareness of the risks and Ketchum. The winner will be
of exposure to asbestos – the Delegates at the asbestos launch hold aloft literature packs annouced on 6 June.
most deadly carcinogen – in
workplaces. workplace exposure stands at added. “Public buildings are www.notimetolose.org.uk
The event was held on about 5,000. The most common riddled with asbestos.”
9 April at BMA House in of these diseases is An estimated half a million Excellence awards entries
London. On the same day an mesothelioma. Liz Darlison, UK buildings still contain Nominations have opened for
IOSH-organised thunderclap director of services at the asbestos, despite its use being IOSH’s 2018 Excellence Awards,
– a social media tool used to charity Mesothelioma UK, banned in 1999. which celebrate the outstanding
spread a message as wide as described NTTL as a Colette Willoughby, achievements of volunteers,
possible – was sent out from “wonderful campaign” and principal examiner (asbestos) members and committees. Last
295 social media accounts, urged delegates to take action. for the British Occupational year, the awards were handed
reaching an audience of nearly She said: “Mesothelioma is Hygiene Society, said that out in three categories: enhance
half a million people. the most despicable cancer you managing asbestos doesn’t (Food and Drink Industries
Every year, well over can imagine being diagnosed have to be complicated for Group); collaborate (Northern
100,000 people die across the with. It’s a death sentence. businesses and can be done by Ireland Branch/Rural Industries
globe from an asbestos-related “In the UK, we have an following three steps: Group); and influence (Offshore
disease, yet an estimated opportunity to fight this establishing if any is present Group). Submissions must be
125 million are still exposed at disease head on and to do in buildings; if there is, received by 15 July.
work annually. something about it.” identifying the risks it
In the UK alone, the annual Liz highlighted that presents; and putting measures www.iosh.co.uk/excellence
death toll from asbestos- 20 tradesmen die in the UK in place to manage those risks.
related diseases caused by every week from asbestos- She added: “It does sound Two new fellows
related diseases. But simple, but it is crucial that IOSH members David Gold and
she added it is not people acting on those steps Malcolm Davies attained
just construction have the required knowledge.” chartered fellow status in
workers who are at March. During the same month,
IOSH has created free resources
risk. 49 members passed their
to help businesses ensure that
“I can’t count the interviews to become chartered
their employees are not putting
number of doctors, members.
their futures at risk. To access
nurses and school
them visit:
teachers who I have bit.ly/2BShidJ
Liz Darlison addresses delegates at the launch www.notimetolose.org.uk
looked after,” she

New CPD course dates added ●● Noise Measurement and

IOSH has added new dates to
its CPD courses, following high
demand from members.
The courses, introduced by
the institution late last year and
covering six different topics,
have proved very popular.
Each course takes one or two
days and IOSH members can
benefit from a special discounted
rate. After the first round of
Management Best Practice
Workshop: 8 May at Stanton
House Hotel, Swindon;
courses were held at IOSH’s office 10 July at Campanile Hotel,
in Leicestershire, the latest ones Manchester; one further
will be held at venues across date to be confirmed.
England. ●● Conducting General Risk
Three new courses are soon Assessments: 9-10 May;
to be added. Members will be 18-19 June; 7-8 August
kept updated on what these all held at The Elms,
courses cover and when they Loughborough; one further
will be held. date to be confirmed.
The new course dates are as ●● Behavioural Safety:
follows: 31 May at Lancashire County
Cricket Club, Manchester;
one further date to be
confirmed.
The dates and venues of the
three other confirmed courses
are yet to be announced. The
topics are: Board Masterclass
for OSH Professionals; Modern
COSHH Management; and
Legionella Management.
For more details on the
courses, visit:
www.iosh.co.uk/cpdcourses

MAY 2018 17
IOSH News
A year of progress
IOSH chair Bill Gunnyeon looks back at
the first year of WORK 2022 – and ahead
at what’s in store for the next phase of
the strategy.
As we approach the anniversary
of the launch of WORK 2022,
we can reflect on a year of
significant progress and
achievement.
We launched our new
qualification, Safety and Health
for Business, created
professional development
courses, increased capacity for
chartership interviews and
staged a series of successful
events, including IOSH 2017 in
September.
Collaborations included
Vision Zero, the Modern Slavery
Group, media partnerships with
Director and Management Today
magazines, a farm safety
initiative in Northern Ireland
and NHS England’s ‘Cover Up
Mate’ campaign.
We worked with other leading
health and safety bodies on a
robust response to the Grenfell
Tower disaster, and our
suggestions on building
regulations and fire safety were
Notice of special general
meeting
An IOSH special general
meeting (SGM) will be held on
2 May, from 10.30am-noon
at Loughborough University’s
Holywell Park Conference Centre.
At its meeting in February,
the IOSH Council agreed some
important changes to IOSH’s
governance arrangements.
Proposed changes include
amendments to the structure of
IOSH’s Board of Trustees’
committees and other arrange-
ments, and so will require
changes to the byelaws. As per
IOSH’s governance arrange-
ments, these changes can only be
implemented if approval is given
at an SGM and then by the Privy
Council.
18 MAY 2018
factored into Dame Judith
Hackitt’s interim report.
Some 250 organisations have
now joined our successful No
Time to Lose campaign on
occupational cancer, which has
been selected as a finalist in the
CIPR Excellence Awards for the
second year running (see p 17).
And we demonstrated
leadership in driving standards
worldwide, which included
playing a key role in the
development of ISO 45001 and
creating resources to support
members’ implementation of
the new international standard.
IOSH and its members led
debate on critical global issues
facing the profession and
business, and we delivered
impactful research that
informed new guidance,
including the Irish Workplace
Study and Returning to Work
with Mental Health Disorders.
These are some of the
highlights from a busy
All IOSH corporate members,
chartered and retired chartered
members, and chartered and
retired chartered fellows are
entitled to vote. Other IOSH
members are entitled to attend
and speak at the SGM. Corporate
members can vote at the meeting
or via electronic proxy (electronic
voting closes at 5pm on 18 May).
Corporate members have been
sent details on how to vote.
If you would like to attend
the SGM, please email
governance@iosh.com
For further information on the
proposed changes and how to
vote, log in to MyIOSH on the
IOSH website.
IOSH chair Bill Gunnyeon
12 months and our members
have been instrumental in
supporting delivery.
In 2018-19, we will continue
at pace to deliver the next phase
of our strategy. This will include
initiatives to nurture the next
generation of OSH professionals,
improvements to the way we
help members move through the
grades, from affiliate to fellow,
and development of our
Blueprint programme to ensure
members receive the best advice
on professional development.
A brand new website will go
live later this year, as will a
streamlined Initial Professional
Development process and a
new, easy-to-use Continuing
Professional Development
platform. We will introduce a
free sign-up to more than one
industry sector group.
Our work in 2017-2018
on developing strategic
partnerships with business will
continue, including a Business
Leaders Forum for business to
inform the services we develop.
And in 2018-19, IOSH will
implement a global service
model so we can meet the
requirements of stakeholders
wherever they are in the world.
With members, IOSH has
defined six priority areas to
help the organisation to focus
in on those important topics in
safety and health at work.
These are:
●● Occupational cancer
●● Wellbeing – physical and
mental health
●● Musculoskeletal disorders
●● Non-health-related
fatalities
●● Rehabilitation
●● Sustainability and human
capital.
If enhance, collaborate and
influence are the overarching
themes of WORK 2022, these six
areas give us more structure
when considering specific
safety and health issues to
address as part of our strategy.
In 2018-19, they will inform
a range of new toolkits and
practical guides for members,
and shape a programme for our
annual conference that will
cater for members in every
sector and at every stage of
their professional development.
A number of the priority
areas are health and wellbeing
related, so from 29 April to
4 May, in Dublin, IOSH is
having a significant presence
at and participation in ICOH
2018 – an excellent
opportunity to present the
institution as a key player in
the occupational health field,
at the sector’s triennial,
international congress.
Occupational health and
wellbeing, with sustainability
and safety, will be prominent
themes in December, when
IOSH supports its Hong Kong
branch in staging APOSHO 33.
And the priority areas will
underpin new work to shape
our policies and campaigns
framework and research and
development portfolio.
Throughout the next 12 to
18 months, the views of
members will be critical in
informing our implementation
of the plans outlined above,
which is why we are planning
to enhance our processes for
member insight.
Our members will be central
to what promises to be another
exciting phase of IOSH’s WORK
2022 journey.

Join IOSH Council and develop yourself
and your institution
Do you want an “excellent personal
development opportunity? How about a
“positive networking experience”? If so,
joining IOSH’s Council may just be the
ideal next step for you.
Nominations for the 2018
elections are open. IOSH is
seeking 12 members who are
committed to the safety and
health profession and have a
desire to play a key role in the
next three years as the
institution continues to deliver
its WORK 2022 strategy.
As a member of Council, you
can represent the views of your
fellow members; you can debate
key strategic, professional and
policy issues; and you can help
choose who the next president
of the institution will be.
To be nominated, each
candidate needs to be proposed
by two other members, or a
New theatre group launched
IOSH launched its Theatre
Advisory Group on 24 April.
Here, its chair, Dominique
Perrissin-Fabert, looks at the
industry’s risks.
Our group aims to provide a
wide range of guidance,
knowledge and support in the
theatre industry, and in the wider
OSH context.
Theatre has its own unique
“ecosystem”: a culture of
freelance work with long and
irregular hours, and a diversity of
workplaces – from small studio
spaces to huge opera houses.
It has some unique risks to
assess too. Take scenes involving
a donkey falling off a stage, a
monkey throwing poo, or a
“suicide” by hanging. These are
just some of the weird and
wonderful scenarios we have
been asked to help risk assess.
Theatre professionals are
open to innovation and
network. Nominations must
be received by noon on 25 May.
Later this year, a ballot will
be conducted to elect 12 Council
members, who will join after
the institution’s AGM at
September’s Networks
Conference. Successful
candidates will serve for
three years.
Existing Council members
have said the opportunity is
not-to-be-missed.
Paul Haxell said: “For me,
being on Council, is an
opportunity to connect to the
membership a bit better.”
Andy Lo said: “I find the
networking experience most
experimentation, and often reach
their artistic goals by taking
risks. OSH professionals in the
industry find a way to apply the
regulations to enable the most
exciting, entertaining – and
sometimes ludicrous – situations.
The demands of
performances, training and
rehearsals on performers and
technical staff can lead to hearing
or musculoskeletal disorders,
high stress levels and exposure
to high risk situations – an even
greater challenge when on tour.
The work consistently proves
there is no single answer on how
to deal with safety and health.
Improving everyone’s safety
awareness in this setting is
crucial. We will work to promote
and develop the skills,
knowledge and experience of
safety, health and wellbeing
practitioners and specialists in
the theatre industry.
Council members at a meeting in September 2017
positive and extremely valuable
to my career path.”
Mary Lawrence said: “It’s a
really good way to find out
about the organisation. It’s a
good stepping point if you think
you might want to do more
volunteering.”
IOSH president Craig Foyle
said: “Members can really
Two directors join IOSH board
Two seasoned business
strategists from the worlds
of manufacturing and
international shipping have
joined IOSH’s Board of
Trustees.
Corporate member trustee
Kevin Furniss CMIOSH and
Neal Walker, independent
trustee, attended their first
board meeting recently, and
revealed similar motivations
for volunteering.
Kevin said: “Health and
safety has served me well. Now
I’m an executive board member
of the company I work for, I can
give something back to IOSH
and help it to shape a future for
the institution and the
profession.”
As vice-president of health,
safety, security, environment
and sustainability at AP Moller
Maersk’s terminals brand APM
Terminals (Leader interview,
IOSH News
benefit from being a member of
Council because they get to
understand the governance
process and also it provides an
excellent personal development
opportunity.”
To make your nomination or
for more information, visit:
www.mi-nomination.com/iosh
IOSH Magazine, February 2018,
bit.ly/2BRns9O), Kevin says he
can provide insight into the
institution and its reach
beyond the UK.
Neal, regional executive
director for vehicle
manufacturer Scania, has
previously worked in the
construction and oil industries.
He said: “I feel I can
contribute from the position of
being in industry right now.
It’s something I can do for
IOSH, but my company,
Scania, also benefits in gaining
an insight into a safety and
health organisation.”
The Board of Trustees is
appointed by the Council and
is responsible for managing
IOSH affairs. It has legal
accountability for all the
institution’s activities and
results and meets six times
a year.
MAY 2018 19
Events
For IOSH group and branch events
visit www.iosh.co.uk/events

May enhance your workplace culture”.

25 Brake Fleet Safety Conference
NEC, Birmingham
£60 exc VAT
The theme of this year’s conference
is Facing the Future: are you ready?
with presentations on safety through
innovation, the modern driver and
using crash data. Afternoon breakout
sessions will cover route and journey
planning, electric vehicles, managing
young drivers, the future of delivery,
and recruitment and driver training.
bit.ly/1NCfpmh
June
14 IOSH National Safety and
Health Conference
Nottingham Belfry Hotel, Nottingham
£108 inc VAT (IOSH members);
£132 inc VAT (non-members)
Public sector practitioners’ event
will focus on “influencing change to
Speakers confirmed from the
HSE, Institute for Employment
Studies and MindSafety.
bit.ly/2G2yZFI
19-21 Safety and Health Expo
Excel London
Free
More than 13,500 safety and health
professionals and 300 exhibitors are
expected to attend this year’s event.
www.safety-health-expo.co.uk
July
18 Safety in Construction Show
Roundhouse, Derby
Free
Event designed to showcase safety
products for use in the construction sector,
with presentations on trench collapse,
airborne fibres and hazardous substances.
bit.ly/2EfyYO0
September
17-18 IOSH Annual Conference
ICC Birmingham
£500 (IOSH members);
£700 (non-members)
The title of IOSH 2018 is Shape a New
World of Work. Conference tracks
will cover: health and wellbeing;
developing business skills to integrate
OSH across the workplace; working
effectively with members of other
professions in an organisation;
and enhancing personal technical
skills and capabilities. Journalist
and TV presenter Cathy Newman
will return to chair the conference.
See p 16 for more information.
www.ioshconference.com

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20 MAY 2018
Online
STORIES POSTED BELOW ARTICLES ON @IOSHMagazine
OUR WEBSITE PLUS TOPICS THAT HAVE IOSH Magazine group
KEPT MEMBERS BUSY IN THE FORUMS

Road signs for the happen to someone else,” he

Online only news restaurant’s drive-through and

car park entrances were not
said.
But Colin Atkinson felt
We put articles online at ioshmagazine.com throughout the month as clear and, less than a year before the prosecution showed that
news comes in. Though most are republished in these pages, there the incident, two other workers placing responsibility entirely
isn’t space for all of them. Here are some that didn’t make it into print. had sustained minor injuries on the holiday park operator
while directing traffic outside was unfair.
● REFURB CO’S UNTRAINED SITE MANAGER ALLOWED FAILURES the same restaurant in Essex. “Although I have every
Building contractor ignored HSE’s WaH advice | bit.ly/2HLnxQZ sympathy for a child being hurt and
● BEARING MAKER’S OVERSIGHT LED TO WORKER’S CRUSHING little sympathy with inadequate
£373k fine for failing to control operation’s risks | bit.ly/2qD1Fj5 systems and management,” he
● EGG FARM AND JOINERY CONTRACTOR FINED FOR ROOF FALL said. “I can’t be the only one

Failure to check contractor’s competence | bit.ly/2qG1wKW
● TRUCK SUSPENSION BAG FRACTURED APPRENTICE’S SKULL
Bag ejected under pressure hitting mechanic | bit.ly/2H5YFpQ
● WORKERS USED CROWBARS TO SMASH ASBESTOS ROOF
No personal protective equipment provided | bit.ly/2HGTMR1
● DR LESLEY RUSHTON TO CHAIR INDUSTRIAL INJURY GROUP
Occ cancer expert holds post for next five years | bit.ly/2HaEiUt
Feedback on IOSH Magazine if this industry is to survive in
articles and columns three years’ time.”
Our story on the Health and
Safety Executive’s advice that
employers were wasting money
Our ISO 45001 roundtable investing in generic manual
discussion (bit.ly/2p7BQWZ) handling training
continues to generate (bit.ly/2HxyANq) struck a
comments. chord with reader Chris Harris.
Dale Banham raised concerns “I have often had to
about the new standard’s implement this type of training
application to businesses with over the years with little faith in
fewer than five employees, its worth,” he said. “I did so in
which he said were struggling my early career partly because of
to survive under the current naivety, peer pressure, [it being
burden of “compliance an] easy option and a lack of real
application” in the construction personal knowledge.”
sector. He applauded the HSE and
others for “calling it out” and
added: “Robust risk assessment
and real control measures are
what we should be doing.”
Philippa Myall agreed:
“Training needs to be tailored
to the company, the site being
worked on and the role being
He said: “My concern is [that] performed for it to be effective.”
ISO [45001] will be delegated Fast food chain McDonald’s
down to these small companies, was fined £200,000 for putting
which are the ones on site carrying an untrained 17 year old at risk
out the works…” directing traffic in a restaurant
Banham pointed to his own car park (see p 6).
company and warned: “I had The penalty drew a stern
another client walk away from response from readers who
construction this week due to were quick to blame the angry
so much paper[work]. A more motorist who hit the teenager,
sympathetic approach is required fracturing his knee.
© Jeff Blackler/REX/Shutterstock
thinking that children needing
lessons in tree climbing says more
about society and the parents than
it does about health and safety in
workplaces.”
Two readers said they hoped Threads in IOSH forums
the police and McDonald’s
had also brought legal action
against the motorist.
Tim Tinsley went further,
adding: “I assume the driver ●● Electricians at height:
was sent down for attempted Request for advice on
murder.” contractors seen “crawling
Two readers commented on along electrical trunking”
the Center Parcs prosecution to run in new cables when a
in March, which resulted in MEWP was available.
the holiday park operator bit.ly/2HK586T
being fined £250,000 after an ●● Volunteer incentives:
eight year old fell around 3 m Query about whether
during an organised tree climb companies should pay or
and broke her wrist offer other benefits for
(bit.ly/2quFA5A). employees to become first
Peter Arnold said he had aiders and fire marshals.
had an accident at the same bit.ly/2qIRvN0
adventure challenge at Center ●● Access barrier dilemma: A
Parcs in Woburn Forest visitor’s injury caused by
Village. Arnold had sustained an automatic barrier sparks
a cut above his eye after using a discussion on whether
the zip wire; the rope had they should be removed and
swung back at the end of the access managed by staff
challenge and hit him in the directly.
face. bit.ly/2EWZviH
●● Assessment semantics:
Debate over whether to
insist risk assessors state
I assume the driver
“will” rather than “must”
was sent down for in assessments’ control
attempted murder measures.
bit.ly/2JVRFcH
“They stated that they ●● Fuel storage in private cars:
would look into the [cause of Advice on transporting
the incident] as my concern small quantities of fuel in an
[was] that, as they had recently employee’s own vehicle for
changed the braking system at work-related use.
the end of the zip wire, it would bit.ly/2J6GpJg

MAY 2018 21
Reviews
50 Top Tools for Employee Wellbeing
Debbie Mitchell, Kogan Page (www.koganpage.com)
£29.99 paperback
Stress is a primary cause of sickness absence in the
UK, with 12.5 million working days lost to it and
the associated conditions of depression and anxiety
in 2016-17, according to the Health and Safety
Executive. Yet many managers view it as a vague,
uncertain and difficult area – or worse, dismiss it
entirely.
We all know what stress feels like, so perhaps
the problem is that we struggle to identify specific
preventive actions, in the way that we would so
readily do for safety issues such as fire, machinery or
work at height hazards.
One response is to promote wellbeing rather than
prevent stress, and that is where Debbie Mitchell’s
latest book comes in. As the title suggests, she
offers a 50-part toolkit for any manager wishing
to maximise employee welfare and benefit from a
healthy, productive and engaged workforce.
The 50 tips are organised under the headings
leadership and advocacy, career, physical and mental,
social and community, and financial. These are
sandwiched between a scene-setting introduction
and a chapter of supporting information. As well as
the obvious “where to find out more” listings, this
final section offers a general estimate of costs for the
ideas in the previous chapters; there is also a useful
Safety, Health and Environmental Auditing: a practical guide,
2nd edition
Simon Watson Pain, CRC Press (www.crcpress.com)
£73.90 hardback, ebook £35.99
Simon Watson Pain offers a timely update
explaining the requirements for the latest ISO
standards. This second edition, which expands into
new topics including due diligence, environment,
safety and health auditing and process safety
auditing, provides a structured evaluation of the
efficiency, effectiveness, and reliability of an
organisation’s safety, health and environment (SHE)
management system.
Pain, a chartered mechanical engineer with more
than 30 years’ senior management experience and
a chartered IOSH member, designed and developed
the audit protocols of ICI, the former chemicals
multinational.
His book begins with a reminder of what makes a
good management system, the principles of auditing
and how to run the various audit stages. He outlines
the qualities of a good auditor and later focuses
on the softer skills of the process. For example,
on formal meetings, he offers advice on the art of
communication and how auditors can best position
themselves to ensure a co-operative discussion.
The book’s breadth makes it far more than just
another publication on the dry, albeit important
22 MAY 2018
table setting out which measures work best with
which others.
Mitchell is strong on the practical techniques
of getting the best out of employees – she has also
written a parallel volume, 50 Top Tools for Employee
Engagement. She assembles an excellent mix of
official advice, personal experience, published
research, anecdotes and commonsense psychology.
Each tool is presented in a standard format that sets
out its link to wellbeing, how best to implement it,
outcomes to aim for, and how to measure results.
On the downside, I did feel short-changed by
the toolkit idea. To me, “tool” implies a specific
implement that, used correctly, will achieve a definite
result; but here, many of the chapter headings are
“relevant topics” rather than tools as such. What’s
more, the book is billed as a “complete toolkit”;
although you certainly get breadth, there’s not
much depth. Logically, in a book of some 250 pages
covering 50-plus topics, you cannot expect more
than five pages on average on any single one – and
some of them merit a great deal more detail than this
approach makes possible.
That said, for the manager looking for a broad
swathe of ideas on how to tackle stress, the book is
undoubtedly a valuable starting point. And, at £29.99
for the paperback, it is a tiny investment that could
reap big benefits.
There is a special offer for IOSH Magazine readers:
quote the discount code PHREW20 to get 20% off
orders placed at www.koganpage.com/50wellbeing
PAUL SMITH CFIOSH
subject of SHE auditing with reference to ISO
standards. Pain delves into topics that would make
me consider buying a copy even though I’m not
an auditor. The chapter on process safety auditing,
for instance, gives a useful insight into how you
could adapt this approach to improve standard audits
or even workplace inspections. I also enjoyed the
chapter on due diligence. For those of us involved
in mergers and acquisitions this provides handy
advice on what to think about and also how to
determine the risks.
The biggest draw, however, is Pain’s inclusion of
an audit checklist (with verification statements) for
60 key areas of SHE risk. When I first graduated I
was a safety consultant and had to write something
similar for my company. It took me an age to
complete and it wasn’t particularly exciting. Pain
has taken all the drudgery away. Readers can access
his free audit protocol through the website of his
employer, Solway Consulting Group, after you
register for a password.
When this book landed on my desk I wasn’t sure
how useful it would be. Reading it convinced me.
Although auditors and consultants will benefit most
from it, others in non-specialist SHE audit roles
will find useful tips on how to develop their skills. I
would consider buying this book for the chapter on
due diligence alone; it has helped me to advance my
thinking in this important area. Given the cost of the
hardback, I would recommend the ebook version.
RICHARD BYRNE CMIOSH
Chemicals regulation
REACH: Brexit
strategies
In the second of our articles on the EU’s chemicals
overarching licensing regulation, we look at the
potential paths for the UK when it leaves the bloc
Words: BRIDGET LEATHLEY
T
here is shadow looming over this month’s
REACH deadline for registering substances in
quantities of above one tonne and made in or
imported into the EU: Brexit. Though all the
union’s regulations continue to apply to the UK until at
least 29 March 2019, some suppliers may be tempted
to assume that those enforcing REACH will not catch
up with them by then or could decide not to supply the
product because of the expense of meeting a registration
that might become redundant next year.
This month we look at the post-Brexit options for
REACH, their implications and at the indications of which
way negotiations might take the UK. Whether businesses
are based inside or outside the UK they could well be
affected by the post-Brexit options for REACH.
Around 60% of chemical exports from the UK go
to EU countries and 75% of substance imports come
from them. Companies based in the EU supplied by a
UK manufacturer, or by a UK company registered as the
only representative (OR) for a non-EU manufacturer,
might need to find a new supplier. Non-EU
manufacturers that use a UK supplier as their gateway
to Europe might need new European partners. It is also
widely accepted that the expertise of the UK regulator
has had a positive impact on shaping and managing
REACH; this too will be missed.
In or out?
The government has ruled out remaining a full
participant in the single market – the so-
called Norway model – so the choice is to
negotiate either an arrangement by which
the UK, though outside the free trading
bloc, stays in REACH or an out-of-
REACH option. Out-of-REACH is
the default position if nothing is
Carlos Miguel agreed by next March. Carlos
Fazendeiro Miguel Fazendeiro, managing
managing director, director of specialist chemical
OnlyCoreChem
consultancy OnlyCoreChem,
24 MAY 2018
explains the view of the European
Chemicals Agency (ECHA): “If no positive
agreement is reached, after March 2019 the
UK would be considered as a ‘third country’. Only
representatives with a registered office in the UK would
no longer be valid and would have to move to an EU
country. British manufacturers would need to appoint
an only representative located in the EU.”
Geraint Roberts, editorial director of Chemical
Watch, which publishes advice on chemical risk and
regulatory management, says a deal that keeps the UK
inside REACH “would avoid the need for companies
to re-register their substances and is clearly far more
economical”. But he is not optimistic: “The outcome is
likely to be what the EU decides it will be.”
The cost of BREACH
The assumption of the experts, backed by the UK
government’s pledge to copy EU regulations
into its EU Withdrawal Bill, is that UK
will not abandon chemical regulation.
However, copying over the rules will not
be enough. Roberts says a British REACH
(BREACH) would have to be established
“at great expense to British industry and the British
taxpayer”.
The costs to the taxpayer would involve setting
up a parallel system of registration, evaluation,
authorisation and restriction. The ECHA has 500 staff
and a budget of more than £100m a year. At a time
when the Health and Safety Executive’s resources have
been cut, it is difficult to see where these services
could come from. In a report on the future of
chemicals regulation (bit.ly/2BASdTK) the
House of Commons Environmental
Audit Committee admitted
that “establishing a fully
standalone system
of chemicals
regulation for the
 Chemicals regulation

UK is likely to be expensive for both the taxpayer and for

industry”.
As well as the government’s costs in setting up a
parallel system, the cost to industry of lost registrations,
lost exports and higher import costs is difficult to
calculate. The UK exports chemicals worth almost
£15bn to the EU each year, and an out-of-REACH
option could result in cancelled orders or smaller
margins for UK businesses, or higher prices for EU
purchasers. One estimate is that UK companies have
already spent £250m on registering with REACH – money
that cannot be recouped if the UK ends up out-of-REACH.
In addition, the UK’s Chemical Industries Association has
estimated the cost of re-registering substances with a
new national equivalent system would be around £350m.
For downstream users – most businesses that use
chemical formulations in everyday applications, from
cleaning to lubrication – the implications of this are
equally uncertain. If a smooth transition is not negotiated,
and registrations become void on 29 March 2019,
substances on which users rely could become unavailable
in weeks.
If a managed departure is negotiated, new
registrations could be phased, making supply chains more
reliable, though with the possibility of increased costs.
Whether immediately or after a transition period, if you
currently buy a substance from a UK company acting as
an OR for a non-EU manufacturer, they will no longer
be able to hold that status. They could still import under
UK rules, but it might be uneconomic for them to do so
without access to the EU market.
Though the ECHA website (bit.ly/2fOhbDw) has
a confident statement that “the overall aims of
our operations will remain untouched by the UK
withdrawal”, Jeff Kelsey, REACH and toxicology
specialist at Chemsage, believes that the
evaluation and authorisation process will be
affected if the UK leaves.
“The UK has been a moderating influence,”
he says. “The other Europeans will miss us.”
There is also the fact that, by March this
year, 13% of the registrations had come

© istockphoto/Tatomm

MAY 2018 25
Chemicals regulation
from the UK – only Germany had a higher proportion.
Some of those registrations will be for substances
registered in other countries, but the UK has taken the
lead on many. The rest of the EU will have to fill the gap.
Part of the success of REACH has been in improving
communications between organisations across the EU –
sharing data and incident information. One concern about
the BREACH model is that, whatever the EU Withdrawal
Bill says, we will not continue sharing information in this
way. The UK-based Environmental Policy Forum (EPF)
highlighted the consequence of this, warning: “Not only
would the need to generate repeat safety information be
expensive, it could also require significant duplication
of animal testing, with the associated impact on animal
welfare.”
Cherry picking?
An alternative out-of-REACH option would be to mirror
the outcomes of the REACH process, thus avoiding the
expensive process of evaluation. This would commit the
UK to applying EU rules without access to the underlying
data on which a decision had been made. A version of
If a transition is not negotiated,
and registrations become void
on 29 March 2019, substances on
which users rely could become
unavailable in weeks
26 MAY 2018
this route has now been agreed for the transition period,
which is set to run from 29 March 2019 to 31 December
2020 when a new UK-EU relationship kicks in. Though
the transitional arrangement depends on the EU and UK
agreeing a final withdrawal treaty, it states that during
the 19 months the UK will continue to adhere to all EU
chemicals regulations, including REACH, and remain a
member of the ECHA. But it will have observer status only
and will have no say in policy development.
However, this option seems unlikely as a longer-
term fix, given the content of Prime Minister Theresa
May’s Plan for Britain speech in January 2017 when she
declared: “We will not have truly left the European Union
if we are not in control of our own laws.”
Kelsey suggests a further option that would salvage
some benefits from leaving the EU and retain the benefits
of an EU-wide project.
“If the UK could stay part of the registration part of
REACH, existing UK registrations could remain valid,” he
says. “But we could bring authorisation and restriction
back to a UK authority so that a more risk-based (as
opposed to hazard-based) approach could be taken.”
Kelsey concedes that his favoured approach implies
that substances the ECHA would prefer to ban or severely
restrict might still be used in the UK. “This wouldn’t
affect our exports to the EU as we’re talking about
substances used in manufacturing that are not present in
the end product being exported.”
However, the EU might see this approach as an
example of the “cherry picking” its general secretariat
has criticised the UK for.
Second sight
Organisations, from those representing producers such
as the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) to green
organisations such as the Environmental Policy Forum,
have called for an in-REACH solution. Some fear that
anything less could lead to the UK importing and using
dangerous substances banned across the rest of the EU.
The Guardian newspaper (bit.ly/2Ho9G2e) was pessimistic
in its warning: “May’s interest in a US trade deal
seems likely to mean the UK ends up with a much more
permissive system, and more toxic chemicals.”
There was evidence in January that the UK
government was not just considering a separate BREACH
system but planning for one. The ECHA developed
IUCLID (International Uniform Chemical Information
Database), a software system to record, store, maintain
and exchange data on intrinsic and hazard properties of
chemical substances. The ECHA has been talking about
sharing IUCLID with countries keen to adopt REACH-like
regulations, including India, China and Turkey.
In January the UK Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra) approved almost £6m for the
first phase of developing its own registration software
(bit.ly/2ofWbcd), suggesting ministers were less than
optimistic that the UK’s relationship with the ECHA
would be as close as the Chinese.
Defra minister Dr Thérèse Coffey told MPs in February
that an in-REACH solution was not likely (bit.ly/2ptsSnK).
This was despite a recognition that the main concern of
industry was “to ensure that existing REACH registrations
remain valid” and noting that “trade associations and
other organisations have continued to call for the UK
to stay in REACH”. Her response confirmed BREACH as
the government’s favoured option. “We will not stay in
REACH per se but, through the provisions set out in the

European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, we will bring into law
the regulations that put REACH into effect.”
But by the end of the month the tide seemed to have
turned. First, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, previously
shy about his precise views on Brexit, delivered a speech
mentioning the “vital task of evaluating and authorising
chemicals as safe for use” performed by the ECHA,
along with the important roles of the Food Standards
Agency and Euratom (the European nuclear regulator).
Corbyn concluded: “It makes no sense for the UK to
abandon EU agencies... supporting our industrial sectors,
protecting workers and consumers and safeguarding
the environment.” He proposed that the UK should be £15bn
ANNUAL VALUE OF UK
“negotiating to support individual EU agencies rather
CHEMICAL EXPORTS
than paying more to duplicate those agencies here.” TO THE EU
Then in early March, May appeared to open the door
to an “in-REACH” option. In a key speech on Brexit she
said the UK would want to explore with the EU the terms
on which it “could remain part of EU agencies such as
those that are critical for the chemicals, medicines and
aerospace industries: the European Medicines Agency, the
European Chemicals Agency, and the European Aviation
Safety Agency. We would, of course, accept that this would
mean abiding by the rules of those agencies and making
an appropriate financial contribution.” May added that
associate membership of agencies such as ECHA would be
“the only way to meet our objective of ensuring that these
Jeff Kelsey
products only need to undergo one series of approvals
in one country” and would also “ensure that we could REACH and toxicology
specialist, Chemsage
continue to provide our technical expertise”.
Dr Alistair Bromhead Ltd
Manual Handling – Train the Trainer
City & Guilds Accredited Programme
This two-day City & Guilds accredited course will provide supervisors, managers, trainers and consultants
with the skills, competence and materials to implement manual handling training programmes. The course
has been updated and can be run in-house at your premises where you have a group, as well as being
offered around the country as an open course. Forthcoming open dates include:
Leeds: 16 & 17 May Coventry:
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Manchester: 12 & 13 June London:
Leatherhead: 26 & 27 June Manchester:
Bristol: 10 & 11 July Leatherhead:
London: 18 & 19 July Bristol:
For prices, booking forms and venue details:
www.abromhead.co.uk
Dr Alistair Bromhead CMIOSH
email: a@abromhead.co.uk
City & Guilds Accredited Centre Proskills Global Ltd EX028538
Chemicals regulation
The CIA broadly welcomed the prime minister’s
reassurances; chief executive Steve Elliott described
the speech as “an encouraging step forward which
acknowledges our industry’s long-standing call
for regulatory consistency in leaving the European
Union.
“Theresa May’s commitment to enabling the
continued involvement of UK officials and their
related technical expertise in the workings of REACH
is something that I believe would be welcomed by our
European partners. Her aim of avoiding duplicate testing
and related costs under REACH would also help to protect
a decade’s worth of investment in REACH by chemical
businesses in the UK.”
The £6m invested in developing a UK-only
chemical database might have been wasted but for
UK organisations, especially those that have invested
in registration dossiers, the savings of not finding
themselves out-of-REACH are likely to outweigh
that cost.
Though the future of post-Brexit chemicals
regulation is far from clear, organisations that are
downstream users of substances covered by REACH
– and that is most businesses – can help prepare for
eventual changes by ensuring their inventories of
substances are up to date, including details of their
suppliers and safety data sheets. Then it would be
wise to identify substances that are critical to their
operations and check with suppliers their likely
position post-Brexit. ●
tel: 07932 674707
15 & 16 August
21 & 22 August
5 & 6 September
19 & 20 September
1 & 2 October
10 & 11 October
MAY 2018 27
Leader interview

Kevin Myers
IALI
The former HSE deputy chief
executive now represents
labour inspectors around the
world and has robust views
on OSH overprovision
Words: LOUIS WUSTEMANN
Pictures: ANDREW FIRTH

28 MAY 2018
 Leader interview

MAY 2018 29
Leader interview
K
evin Myers has a unique perspective on the
UK’s safety and health regulator. He served
in increasingly central roles in the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) from soon after
its foundation in 1975, culminating in a year as acting
chief executive in 2013.
The intervening decades fuel much of my discussion
with Myers but we start with his reflections on a
wider stage. Two years ago he left the British national
regulator to concentrate on his elected role as president
of the International Association of Labour Inspection
(IALI), the global umbrella body for labour standards
regulators (see p 32).
Given the breadth of IALI’s membership,
representing regulators from Albania and Australia to
the UK and Zimbabwe, countries with widely differing
settlements between governments and their citizenry,
I ask whether he believes there is a single, ideal model
for labour inspectorates.
“The regulatory model for any country doesn’t
operate in isolation from the cultures, the norms, the
modus vivendi of that country,” he says. “So you need
to develop a model that fits into the particular culture.
That creates lots of interesting challenges in trying to
advise countries that can’t necessarily see that they
may not be able to do what they say they want to do
because it goes against the grain of how the country
operates.”
30 MAY 2018
He gives the example of Singapore, which adopted the
UK’s principles of OSH regulation in which the duty to
manage the risk lies with the enterprise that creates it.
“They’ve driven significant improvements on the
back of that,” he says. “But the culture in Singapore is
very different from the culture in the UK.” The city state
is renowned for its paternalistic ethos and Myers says
that poses challenges to a government trying to deliver
a goal-setting and risk-based OSH system that relies on
dutyholders for a degree of self-regulation.
Means and ways
On the IALI website, Myers’ presidential statement
refers to the fact that many labour inspectorates are
coping with reduced resources. I ask whether he sees
that as something a representative body should try
to discourage. Not necessarily, he says. “I know of no
labour inspectorate in any country, at any time, that is
adequately resourced. I’m not saying resources aren’t
important, but a much more constructive question is
to ask are we using the resources at our disposal as
efficiently and effectively as we can?
“The ILO [International Labour Organization] has
prescriptive norms of ratios of inspectors to workplaces
or numbers of employees but I don’t think they are
particularly helpful.”
Myers argues that the approach of cutting your coat
according to your cloth creates a strong argument for
more funding rather than less: “If you can show you are
effective and can add value to society because you are
good at what you do it does help make the case for extra
resources.”
He endorses the approach set out by previous leader
interviewee Nancy Leppink (bit.ly/2reWWHm) – whose
job includes running the labour administration section
of the ILO – that labour inspectors can influence good
practice only to a limited degree through sanctions for
individual infringements alone.
Myers uses a diagram with concentric rings of
“influence network domains” to explain his approach. At
the centre is human and technical systems, surrounded
by organisation and management systems, then corporate
policy and finally social and market context. Hazardous
activities such as people climbing unfooted ladders to
remove asbestos with inadequate precautions are naturally
located in the central area of human and technical
systems, he says. “But they do not do this in some
vacuum; it happens as a consequence of the management
system. That system isn’t in a vacuum either, because it
is influenced by corporate policy [the next ring], which
is then also influenced by wider considerations of the
market, reputation, the regulatory system and so on.”
Traditional activity by labour inspectors tries to
influence from the centre outwards to society, “whereas
the reality is the influence in society flows inwards. So it
is self-evident to me that the more you can operate in the
outer circles the wider influence you have.”
He offers the hypothetical example of a country
called Ruritania, which has a young manufacturing
sector: “Ruritania has started to develop a small labour
inspectorate that is trying to get its manufacturers to take
OSH seriously and have higher standards. So that’s one
way of trying to exercise influence. Another way is to say
that most of those companies are part of global supply
chains. The people in those supply chains have checks and
balances to ensure the quality of their products. Why can’t
they also be pressurised to have the same approach to
OSH standards in the factories that supply them?

“The labour inspectorate in Ruritania can’t drive
that. The ILO, the G20, consumer and corporate social
responsibility pressure can do it. Think of the response
of consumers to the Rana Plaza [Bangladesh garment
factory] incident (see p 7). Why can’t we be mobilising
that sort of commitment at a global level proactively as
opposed to reactively?”
He says this sort of supranational pressure from the
groupings of the biggest economies such as the G7 or the
G20 to assure OSH standards in remote suppliers would
create a standard among exporters that would in turn give
the labour inspectorates in countries such as Ruritania
models against which to hold manufacturers for their
domestic markets.
“That’s a more effective way of improving the
inspectors’ competence and standards than just trying
from first principles to go over there and train Ruritanian
inspectors how to carry out investigations.”
This is the sort of message he is delivering on IALI’s
behalf in the nascent discussions on how to implement the
G20 labour and employment ministers’ 2017 statement on
decent work in supply chains (see box on p 32).
Here be monsters
The conversation moves on to Myers’ career with one of
IALI’s founding members, the HSE, spanning most of the
organisation’s first 48 years from just after its genesis
in the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act which itself
stemmed directly from Lord Alfred Robens’ committee’s
report on safety and health regulation. How would he
summarise the HSE’s development?
“I think HSE has been a very successful organisation
in that time,” he says. “It inherited an excellent design
philosophy for OSH matters. The principles in the Health
and Safety at Work Act are eternal truths: that the
primary responsibility for managing risks lies with the
people that create the risks, and they should manage the
risks in consultation with the people who are exposed
Leader interview
to them. What you should be aiming for is what Robens
characterised as self-regulation – which is an articulation
of people owning their risks and managing them
effectively. In this approach the role of the regulator is to
encourage and stimulate that self-regulation and to hold
people to account when it isn’t working.”
He believes that one reason for its success is that the
organisation has historically understood its primary
role is as a regulator. It has innovated in approaches to
regulation and developed a varied toolkit, and responded
to pressures for economy, efficiency and effectiveness
while keeping its eye on that ball.
The fitness of the regime was proven in the fire of
multiple regulatory reviews under the Conservative
government of Margaret Thatcher, the Blair Labour
administration and again under the Conservative/Liberal
Democrat coalition.
The latter saw public attacks from politicians right
up to prime minister David Cameron, who characterised
safety and health requirements as an “albatross” hanging
from the neck of UK business.
“Working under the coalition was interesting,” Myers
says diplomatically. “The rhetoric was much noisier than
what actually happened.”
What was it like managing the HSE through that
period? “Challenging. But we live in a democracy and
the role of the civil service, including senior managers in
the HSE, is to advise the elected government on how to
deliver its policy objectives. In doing so it can sometimes
be necessary to tease out what the policy actually is and
provide evidence to support or question its wisdom or
necessity.
“We wanted to understand what the government
wanted and what the problem was as they saw it.”
Though it put the HSE on the back foot in having to
justify its work to some sceptical ministers, he says he
was not personally confounded by the government’s
“monstering” of OSH provision “because I believed there
MAY 2018 31
Leader interview
was a health and safety monster, or dragon or whatever
it was. The challenge was to get the government to
understand where some of the problems came from.”
Where did they come from? “Over the past 40 years a
health and safety system has developed in our country in
a way that I haven’t seen in any other country,” he says.
The growth of an OSH profession “has undoubtedly
helped to make self-regulation work, but there is a
downside to it. There is an economic theory that says
if you put more and more resources into dealing with
something, there comes a point where you don’t get any
more return on investment. In the late 1990s I think we
went over that peak in respect of OSH in some parts of the
economy.”
Other people have pinned the blame for unnecessary
restrictions in the name of safety and health at the door
of the insurance industry or even over-zealous local
authority officials but, like his former colleague ex-HSE
chair Dame Judith Hackitt, Myers lays some responsibility
at the door of OSH practitioners, particularly consultants.
“Consultants advising a company [can make] the
company dependent on them instead of teaching the
company how to manage risk. There is undoubtedly an
element of that.”
Part of the problem also comes from over-prescriptive
prequalification of suppliers in the UK, he suggests, the
other side of the coin of his earlier point about the need
for global businesses to set higher OSH standards for
their procurement overseas: “There are quite a lot of
prescriptive (back-covering) rules set out in contracts
through supply chains, so it’s business-on-business stuff
that goes over the top sometimes.”
He believes the HSE could and should have reacted
earlier to the “myths” reported widely in some sections of
the press about everyday activities being banned on safety
grounds: “We did eventually start to tackle this head on.
I can’t re-live history so I don’t know if we could have
nipped it in the bud, but it’s one of my regrets that we
didn’t try to do so sooner.”
Overall, he says, though it was a “difficult and tricky
time”, the three reviews of the HSE and OSH regulation
between 2010 and 2015 did not weaken the UK’s safety
and health system significantly.
Fee earning
Another significant development during Myers’ last years
in the HSE’s senior management was the introduction
of the fee for intervention (FFI) scheme, under which
inspectors are obliged to recoup the costs of visiting
businesses whenever they find material breaches of
regulations.
The HSE has always defended the programme as
the OSH equivalent of the “polluter pays” principle in
environmental regulation; under which the enforcing
agency should be able to recoup the costs of its efforts
from those that are in breach. But some ex-inspectors
have complained about the erosion of their discretion
over enforcement action and about the alteration in their
relationship with dutyholders. Does he see any damage to
the relationship between inspectors and inspected?
“I think that the introduction of FFI inevitably had
the potential to cause some damage because it changed
the dynamic,” he says. “It does constrain inspectors and
change the nature of the relationship. But I think it’s
overplayed. As HSE’s resources are contracting, it needs
to get better at ensuring it goes to the places that are
not self-regulating, that are not managing their risks
effectively.
32 MAY 2018
“The job of the inspector is not to inspect every nook
and cranny and check they are complying with every
regulation that is relevant to the business but is to make
an assessment as to whether they are managing risks
effectively. Rather like an auditor, you follow that through
on one or two key risks. What we say to the inspectors is
if you get so far and they seem to be doing [things well],
dip out and go somewhere else where they need you.
“Is the change to the system worth it for the money
that it saved the public purse? No. Is it better that HSE has
got that money than not having it? Yes.”
I ask his view of former HSE chief executive Geoffrey
Podger’s characterisation of a cycle of tighter regulation
after a disaster to be followed by gradual erosion of
controls until the next major event. “People tend to get
complacent, that’s human nature and they forget why
things are done, sometimes quicker than others. The best
example I have is [former national rail infrastructure
company] Railtrack, which was privatised and within
In the scheme of things
Kevin Myers CBE is president of the International Association of Labour
Inspection (IALI). He has served in elected posts in the association since
2005, initially – while working for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – as
vice-president, then secretary general and since 2013 as president. He was
recently elected to a second three-year term.
IALI has around 100 member organisations and represents inspectorates that,
in many countries, regulate not just occupational safety and health but matters
such as working hours and wages as well.
His role is “providing leadership for an organisation that is dispersed across
the world, representational functions on behalf of labour inspectors, and trying
to deliver what the members ask its executive to do”.
He is asked to participate in and speak at gatherings of regional alliances of
labour inspectorates and at OSH conferences worldwide about the role of labour
inspectors. In recent years IALI has drawn up a code of integrity for inspectors,
common principles for establishing an inspectorate, a handbook for measuring
performance and, most recently, an assessment tool for inspectors to evaluate
their effectiveness.
“It’s not a large, well-funded organisation,” says Myers. With no full-time,
permanent secretariat, he says he sometimes feels a bit like the Wizard of Oz
where, for all the activity, “when you pull the curtain aside there’s a little man
standing on a soapbox trying to do it all. And that’s me – and a handful of
colleagues on the executive committee.”
In the years after its formation in 1972, Myers says IALI was mostly Eurocentric,
“but if you think what’s happened to the global economy since then, there are
many countries with a range of industries they never had before”. That is also
reflected in the membership of the executive committee currently comprising
people from China, Germany, Spain, France, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, ARLAC
(African Regional Labour Administration Centre – an umbrella organisation which
supports English-speaking African countries) as well as the UK.
Myers says economic development in such countries follows a predictable
path where the first flush of industrialisation is accompanied by little regulation
and then pressure builds to set and enforce minimum labour standards.
“The seed of the HSE was in 1833 and we have quite a sophisticated, well-
developed system but it has taken nearly 200 years,” he says. “Part of the role of
IALI is to share experience and learning so we can support developing economies
to establish effective labour inspectorates – but quicker than 150 years.”
In a previous leader interview Nancy Leppink of the International Labour
Organization (ILO) talked about a global OSH coalition of labour ministries and
institutes to raise standards. Myers has attended early meetings of G20 country
representatives but says it is early days and the countries and the ILO have yet
to set out a path to “operationalise” the good intentions. “We stand ready to help
them deliver it,” he says.
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Leader interview

Career file
2013-present: President, International Association of Labour Inspection

2015-2016: Director general regulation, HSE

2013-2014: Acting chief executive, HSE

2008-2015: Deputy chief executive, HSE

Non-executive board member, Office for Nuclear

2011-2014:
Regulation

2005-2008: Director, Hazardous Installations Directorate, HSE

2000-2005: Chief inspector of construction, HSE

Regional director, field operations director,

1998-2002:
HSE, Chelmsford

1995-1998: Unit head, Chemical and Hazardous Industries Division

Detached national expert, European Commission,

1993-1995:
DG XI, Brussels
Management board secretary, planning and finance
1991-1993:
officer, Offshore Safety Division, HSE

1989-1991: Private secretary to deputy director general, HSE

1987-1989: Principal inspector, HSE, Bristol

Trainee factory inspector, London, then main grade

1976-1987:
inspector, Norwich, Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

a few years there was no one on the board who had
experience of the rail industry and they didn’t understand
why they needed to spend all that money inspecting the
points.” (Railtrack was dissolved for reasons that included
poor safety management after the Southall and Ladbroke
Grove rail crashes in the late 1990s.)
Building consensus
The first third of Myers’ time at the HSE was spent in
the field inspectorate. Once he moved to the centre,
subsequent posts included a three-year secondment
to the European Commission working on the 1996
Seveso directive on major accident hazards, then
helping to establish the HSE’s chemicals and hazardous
installations directorate to help implement the
directive.
From 2000 to 2005 he served as chief inspector of
construction, one of the agency’s most publicly visible
posts. His start coincided with a spike in the sector’s
annual fatal accident rate by more than 25% from 4.7
to 6 per 100,000 workers – actual fatalities rose from
81 to 105, partly the result of a new government having
invested in major infrastructure projects that fuelled
rapid expansion of the industry after a recession, with an
influx of less experienced and less risk-conscious labour.
But whatever the reason for the leap it was an unhappy
inheritance for Myers.
“All of a sudden it looked like the industry was getting
out of control,” he recalls. “That was one of the busiest
and most challenging times in my career.”
Of all the buttons the HSE pressed to try to bring the
rate back to a virtuous trend he believes one of the most
significant was persuading deputy prime minister John
Prescott to convene a summit involving the trade unions
and chief executives of the representative bodies and
major contractors.
“[We said] you are the deputy prime minister of
this country. Your department actually sponsors the
construction industry and 60% of construction spend is
procured through government. You have all the levers
you need. If you call a summit of the movers and shakers
we can get the industry to agree its targets under your
Revitalising Health and Safety strategy and come forward
with plans to deliver them.”
After his appointment he also questioned why the
HSE had no dedicated division for the sector that was
responsible for most fatalities and serious injuries.
“[I said] ‘I’m chief inspector of construction but I
don’t manage the construction inspectors. We are getting
the industry to change, we ought to ask ourselves whether
we should also be changing’.”
His then boss, Adrian Ellis, the chief inspector of the
field operations directorate, took him at his word and the

All of a sudden it looked like

construction inspectorate was established with around
100 frontline staff.

the construction industry was

He also persuaded the director general to move away
from the annual target of 100,000 inspections as a

getting out of control

performance indicator since it encouraged inspectors to
focus on the quantity of visits – “every contractor spoken

34 MAY 2018

to during a site visit counted as an inspection” – rather
than the quality.
“From memory, over five years we reduced the
number of inspections of construction sites by 50% and
the fatal accident rate went down 50%,” he says. (The
rate dropped immediately back to 4.3 after the initial
spike and was at 3 by the time he handed over the reins of
the construction division in 2005.)
“All the problems of the construction industry aren’t
solved,” he reflects, “but the problems at the top of
the construction industry are incomparably fewer. That
change in culture fed into the success the sector delivered
in the [2012 London] Olympic build.”
I say that the level of attention they received from the
regulator played a powerful part in the major contractors
upping their game. He agrees “up to a point”. He believes
the senior managers in many contractors began to see the
business benefits of better controls on processes, knowing
who was on their sites and that they were competent for
the tasks they were given.
The removal of inspection targets gave inspectors
more time to start looking for the underlying causes of
patterns of infractions by the same companies, and issue
improvement notices to try to fix those causes. This
switched the focus from just trying to fix the human
and technical system failures in his model (see p 30) but
also the managerial systems and even corporate policy.
In the same spirit he encouraged senior inspectors to
arrange meetings with the chief executives of the major
contractors and arranged training to support them. That
higher-level engagement led to improved integration of
safety into projects earlier.
Soon after he took over as construction head he
met the chief executive of a major company which had
From the front
Many of the senior figures interviewed for this magazine have to pause and
reflect when they are asked about leadership qualities in the abstract. Myers has
previously been asked to speak on the subject, so his thoughts are well defined.
“One of the most important things I’ve learned about leadership is it’s not
management,” he says, quoting in support the pioneer of leadership studies,
Warren Bennis: “The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing”.
“Leadership is about setting the culture, about values, behaviours,” Myers
continues. “It’s about being able to be a visionary telling the story of the
organisation, where it’s come from, where it is and where it needs to go and
driving through and delivering that change.
“It was Eisenhower who said leadership is getting someone to do what you
want them to do because they want to do it. I think that’s true for managing
upwards as well as managing down.”
Leaders require humility, he says, and to recognise their own strengths
and development needs. They should build teams that have a full set of
complementary skills, particularly the ones they themselves lack or are
weaker in.
Integrity is also important. “What you do is as important as what you say,”
he adds, because to do otherwise the leader’s behaviour creates cognitive
dissonance or mixed messages.
“Leadership is also about ownership and stepping up to the plate when things
go wrong,” he adds, “rather than blaming the person that was responsible for
delivering something. It’s also about hard decisions and – as [US general] Colin
Powell puts it – it sometimes means having to piss people off.”
As a kicker he offers the quip by US baseball player and manager Casey
Stengel: “The key to being a good leader is keeping the people who hate me
away from those who are still undecided.”
Leader interview
recently had two fatalities on its sites. “He made a pitch
about how they were taking safety very seriously and told
me what they were going to do to ensure they were in
compliance. I said I’m glad you are taking it seriously but
can we forget about health and safety for a minute? When
you go and pitch for contracts do you say to prospective
clients: ‘Give us the job, we will do just about enough’?
Or do you say: ‘Give us the job; we are into innovation,
continuous improvement, driving quality and delighting
the customer’?”
When the chief executive agreed he would pitch all
those aspirational values Myers says he asked, “‘Well why
are you coming in to me and telling me that in health
and safety you are going to do just enough to ensure
compliance?’ To be fair to him he conceded it was a valid
point and he drove forward improvements.
“That’s what I think is at the heart of the Health
and Safety at Work Act,” he adds. “Managing health
and safety risks is an enabler of business. I’ve seen
many people who have sought to raise their game for
altruistic reasons, then realise it pays – and then they are
completely converted.”
Floating boats
I ask what prompted him to join the HSE in the first place.
He recalls a long coach journey with his then girlfriend’s
brother in the early 1970s, just before he finished his
biochemistry degree, in which the conversation turned to
what he wanted to do when he graduated. After Myers set
out his preferences for a job that allowed him to broaden
his knowledge rather than deepening it in a single area,
was not office-bound and had a social purpose, his future
brother in law suggested he investigate what was then
known as the factory inspectorate.
“I looked into it and it seemed to tick all those boxes,
so I applied and joined.”
In his first years as an inspector in east London
he recalls visiting a couple of, then, household name
manufacturers and talked to them about safety
provisions. “And I was thinking ‘they are never going
to get this right because their whole business model is
wrong and I can’t imagine how they can manage the
health and safety risks if they are not managing the
productivity risks, the cost risks and so on’. Very early on
I identified the connection between those factors and that
stayed with me though my whole career. I always tried
to get people to manage health and safety as they would
manage other business risks.”
He recalls another encounter with two partners in
an engineering firm who were milling, grinding and
machining parts with “awful standards, there was no
guarding on the machines, but it was only themselves
who would have been injured”. He says he told them the
correct levels of protection and steered them towards the
relevant guidance but did not press the point as they had
no employees. Some years later he visited another works
in a different part of London with the same name over the
door. “It was a much bigger factory and it was one of the
best factories I had ever inspected. They said that because
they had expanded they had taken the advice previously
given. I really got a buzz from the fact that they had
stored [the advice] up for when they grew.”
He says that one of the reasons he stayed with the
regulator was that the subsequent decades continued to
provide that sort of sense of achievement.
“Forty years later it continued to tick all those boxes
for me it had at the beginning. I continued to learn and
grow throughout my career. I think I thrive on change.” ●
MAY 2018 35
Case study

Landsec: duty
to manage
The FTSE 100 developer uses a belt-and-braces approach
to control asbestos risk to its large supply chain
Words: NICK WARBURTON

© Landsec

36 MAY 2018

A
s one of the UK’s biggest construction
clients and the nation’s largest listed
commercial property company, Landsec
accords asbestos management primary
importance.
“If there is an asbestos issue on one of our sites, it
would be bad news, so it’s in our interest to do the right
thing,” says David Tucker, health, safety and security
business partner.
Asbestos management in retail, one of Landsec’s
largest sectors, is complicated by high street locations
bustling with shoppers. Before the material was banned
in November 1999, asbestos was used in more than
3,000 applications, ranging from vinyl floor tiles to
electrical switchgear and asbestos insulating board (AIB)
ceiling tiles.
Landsec’s health and safety director, Clive Johnson,
to whom Tucker reports, was one of the architects of an
industry guidance document developed with the British
Retail Consortium on managing asbestos-containing
materials (ACMs) in the retail sector (bit.ly/2I0qMT8)
and brings that expertise to the oversight of asbestos
management in the company.
In IOSH Magazine’s August 2016 leader interview
(bit.ly/2udSLgj) Johnson said that Landsec made no
Case study
distinction between the safety and health of its own
workforce and those of any organisation serving it. The
property giant relies on an extensive chain of contractors
and maintenance staff to carry out work on its behalf at
its properties.
Tucker says up to 4,000 people a year work on large
Landsec projects that require the appointment of principal
contractors and notification via an F10 form to the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) under the Construction
(Design and Management) Regulations (CDM).
“That’s a small piece of what we do,” he adds. “If you
include all our managed properties you are looking at
around 10,000 people.”
ACMs are identified when properties are acquired.
Then Landsec brings in its asbestos management
specialist, Environmental Essentials, which it contracts
through a framework agreement. The company carries
out a suite of services throughout the developer’s
portfolio, including management and refurbishment and
demolition (R&D) surveys, and re-inspection surveys.
Tucker estimates that 30% to 40% of the portfolio
contained asbestos when he joined the company in 2008.
“That’s gone down significantly to less than 10%,” he
says. “In terms of sites where we have asbestos now, [we
can count them] on one hand.”
MAY 2018 37
Case study

© Lorna Roberts/Shutterstock
The asbestos removal at the British Home Stores site in Lewisham will be included in an HSE research project

Shop talk is fully notifiable under CDM 2015 and due to the
Landsec is about to start a huge ACM removal project size and complexity of the refurbishment, Landsec
at the former British Home Stores (BHS) site at has appointed Oakmont Construction as principal
Lewisham Shopping Centre in south-east London. The contractor to manage the site and brought in GIA
company took ownership of the 5,149 sq m site in 2016 as principal designer, with Clifford Devlin as the
after the BHS chain ceased trading. appointed licensed asbestos removal contractor.
Preliminary work began in mid-March and the Environmental Essentials undertook the R&D
refurbishment is due for completion in early August. survey and wrote the project’s specification. It will
The project will involve carefully removing intact also carry out air monitoring throughout the job.
and encapsulated AIB from the former store’s ceiling “Because it’s a live shopping centre environment,
and walls. I think it’s only right that we have an analyst there
“It’s a huge job,” says Tucker. “We’ve got throughout the asbestos removal process,” says Tucker.
possession of [the unit] and it needs to be stripped out For projects Landsec owns, Environmental
so we can lease it out, so [the next tenant] comes in to Essentials will also carry out another management
a nice concrete box and they can fit it out and do what survey after asbestos removal.
they want to do with it.” “Quite often with asbestos, you get clearance
For Landsec-owned sites where remediation work certificates [and] a survey but no one [single]
is carried out and it has a duty to manage asbestos, document that brings it all together,” he says. “By
Environmental Essentials is the default principal doing the cleansing and management survey after the
designer. However, because the Lewisham project work, we know we have everything in place.”
Tucker adds that Landsec has also given the HSE’s
science division access to the BHS site to use as a case

HSE asbestos research project study for a research project (see box, left).
Last year Daniel Barrowcliffe, an asbestos scientist
from the division’s fibres and minerals team, and
The fibres and minerals team from the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) who also belongs to the Asbestos Leadership Group,
science division are running a research project to assess the effectiveness of of which Landsec is the UK’s sole client member,
control measures used for licensed asbestos removal. spoke to the property giant’s contractors about the
Asbestos scientist Daniel Barrowcliffe told IOSH Magazine the project will effectiveness of control measures in a four-stage
look at current practices, including the effectiveness of enclosures, respiratory clearance process.
protective equipment and the four-stage clearance procedure. Another site Landsec has already remediated,
The HSE will visit ten sites where businesses have agreed to participate in the albeit on a smaller scale, is Clarks Village in Street,
research. Two asbestos scientists act as observers throughout the removal work. Somerset. Landsec acquired the outlet shopping
If they see poor practice they highlight it to the contractors. Samples collected property last year and found that an older building on
from consenting workers will be analysed for asbestos fibres. the site had an undercroft with ACMs.
The scientists carry out personal and static monitoring and, where permitted, “[The previous landlord] had already identified [the
take photographs and video work areas, processes, work practices, exposure asbestos] but they didn’t quantify it very well, so we
control measures and note good practice and points of concern. asked, ‘How much risk do we have here?’.”
Four sites have been studied to date and the HSE plans to complete the As principal designer, Environmental Essentials
remaining visits by early 2019. All information and results will be anonymised and took the information Landsec had inherited and
presented in a report, which will be available in late 2019. resurveyed the entire site. It quantified the risk and
For more information email: hsl_larcproject@hsl.gsi.gov.uk then drafted the specification before the asbestos
removal work went out for tender.

38 MAY 2018
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 Case study
© Landsec
Westgate shopping centre
Landsec
Founded as Land Securities and rebranded as Landsec in June 2017, the FTSE 100
company has been a major investor in the property market since 1944. Landsec
buys, develops, manages and sells commercial property, both for single and
mixed use, in the leisure, office workspace, residential and retail sectors. It has a
£14.2bn UK-based portfolio.
Landsec’s retail and leisure properties comprise 1.6 million sq m. Its
portfolio has evolved significantly over the past 74 years. Projects now mainly
involve maintenance and refurbishment on properties built after the Asbestos
Prohibition (Amended) Regulations 1999 came into force, which banned the use of
asbestos-containing materials in building construction.
The company’s retail and leisure portfolio includes White Rose in Leeds,
Bluewater in Kent, St Davids Dewi Sant in Cardiff, and Gunwharf Quays in
Portsmouth; 13 retail parks, including Westgate in Stevenage, Hertfordshire; and
20 leisure attractions ranging from Brighton Marina to West India Quay in east
London. Landsec’s office workspace in London is worth £7.8bn. The portfolio
includes commercial properties, including its head office at Nova and the nearby
Zig Zag Building in Victoria as well as 1&2 New Ludgate in the City.
The work involved removing mainly asbestos
insulation residues from brick work and concrete while
in a few small areas there was asbestos cement and
insulating board. Tucker says: “It was sporadic and in low
quantities, but it was still asbestos, so we had it removed.”
Best way standards
Besides its legal duty to produce an asbestos
management plan (AMP), Landsec has strict standards
that it expects of contractors, which are set down in two
suites of documents, one of which covers construction,
the other buildings in use. These are grouped under the
umbrella title One Best Way.
Tucker says the One Best Way asbestos standard is
a user-friendly version of its AMP and includes a list
of its approved contractors and the company’s vetting
procedure. The first step in this process is to issue all
contractors with a pre-qualification questionnaire so
Landsec can identify specialist areas. Once these are
reviewed, the company may request training records or
examples of risk assessments.
“Then we’d go out and see them both on site and
at the head office,” he says. “There’s a three-stage
approach to our approval process. [First we look at] what
they say they do. [Then we] go to the office [and speak
to] the management. Then [we visit] the site and, [check
whether] they do what they say they are going to do.
That applies to all our supply chain [safety controls], not
just [for] asbestos.”
40 MAY 2018
Essential service
As well as an approved list of contractors for removal
and for consultancy and surveying, Landsec has worked
closely with Environmental Essentials since 2015.
“They are almost an extension of us,” Tucker says.
“They manage the re-inspection programme for us, any
surveys we need, air monitoring, [asbestos] removal
specification, principal designer role. We have monthly
contract review meetings with them. We have service
level agreements for turnarounds of work.”
If Environmental Essentials identifies asbestos in a
structure, Landsec will look at its recommendations and
then request a written specification.
“[It will need to be] a very robust, clear specification
of what needs to be done, written by the experts. I am
not going to rely on a survey,” says Tucker.
Once the specification is agreed, Landsec will then
offer the work to the approved list of contractors,
compare tenders and award the contract. Tucker adds
that, unless there is a very good reason not to, Landsec
will also insist that a United Kingdom Accreditation
Service analyst should attend each day to check for
asbestos leaks.
“Without exception, we always appoint the
air monitoring consultancy side separately and
independently of the direct appointment of the removal
contractor,” says Tucker.
“There is never any subcontracting of one to the
other with us. They may gather the quotes for us but
we would make the instruction direct with the removal
company.”
Tucker explains that it is quite common in
the construction sector to find that the analyst is
subcontracted to the removal contractor. “That is a
conflict of interest because the spirit of the regulations
should be that the analyst is independent because they
sign off the work,” he says.
“If they are signing off the job for their client, there’s
obviously commercial conflict. Whether it’s explicit
or not, there will be pressure there. I think that’s
unhealthy. It needs to be separate appointments.”
Through the Asbestos Leadership Group, Landsec has
been working with its partners over the past six months
to develop new duty-to-manage guidance for property
managers and owners.
“I think what Landsec has brought to the table has
been invaluable because we are the [only] client in the
room commenting and giving the clients’ view,” says
Tucker.
The guidance, which was published in early April,
is one of the free resources IOSH is developing for the
asbestos strand of its No Time to Lose campaign (see
box on p 43). IOSH will refine the document to create
two downloads – one UK-specific, which will include
legal requirements, and the other for the global
market, focusing more on the core principles of good
asbestos management.
“It’s a balance between simple and accessible and
enough detail to be effective,” says Tucker. “The
message needs to be clear but not too simple.”
He would like the Asbestos Leadership Group to
take on a project to educate the older workforce.
Because of the long-latency effect of asbestos, the
industry has focused on protecting young workers.
“There is a real piece of work that needs to be
done on the older end of the workforce; those who
don’t have noticeable effects or illness from asbestos
may be complacent.”
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- Integrating management systems

and ISO 45001
- Perspectives on litigation and legislation
- Risk management
- How OSH contributes to productivity
- Integrating health and safety into
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CD0298.07/230318/IM
 Case study

Clive Johnson is chair of the Managing Risk Well

group in the HSE’s Construction Industry Advisory
Committee. Through the committee, Landsec is part of
a client mentoring scheme and acts as a sounding board
Asbestos
and source of advice for smaller clients. removal at Clarks
“We very much see ourselves as a visible client,” Village in Street, Somerset.
Tucker says. “We know our responsibilities and want Top left: Section
of the wall where asbestos
to lead by example. If there’s any advice that we
residues were present. Top right and
would give, it would be to make sure they are aware bottom left: Post-asbestos removal
of their responsibilities. If they are doing a project, showing the surfaces sprayed with
[it’s important] they get their own survey done and ET150 asbestos encapsulation.
Bottom right: A licensed
don’t, for example, rely on a professional survey in the
asbestos removal
preconstruction information.” contractor

© Environmental Essentials
Tucker says that Landsec has inherited properties
and found the previous landlord’s checks have fallen
short. “Because of the Work at Height Regulations,
they took that to mean that they didn’t have to go
into anything above 2 m, so all the ceiling voids were
excluded from the survey report. [The HSE’s survey
guide] HSG264 (bit.ly/2wF2NXH) has helped because
that’s made it more explicit about what a management
survey should be.”
No Time to Lose campaign
This is particularly important, he adds, in
multi-tenanted buildings where all dutyholders The fourth phase of IOSH’s No Time to Lose (NTTL) campaign focuses on raising
are responsible for ensuring their records are fully awareness of occupational cancer caused by asbestos (see p 17).
comprehensive and fit for purpose, unless the lease NTTL provides businesses and workers with free practical resources to help
says otherwise. individuals and organisations take action to manage asbestos-exposure risks.
“[The issue is when] we assume it’s their Readers can access the resources, including the duty to manage infographics
responsibility and they assume it’s ours and nobody does IOSH has developed with the Asbestos Leadership Group and Landsec at: www.
anything. It’s making sure your tenants know what their notimetolose.org.uk/free-resources/asbestos-pack-taster/
duties are and you know where the boundaries are.” ●

MAY 2018 43
Recruitment market

Table talk:
You’re hired
Two experts discuss the current state
of the OSH recruitment market, how
candidates can fine-tune their CVs
and demonstrate soft skills, and how
employers can ensure best fit for
their roles

T
he labour market for safety and health
practitioners in the UK has been in flux in
recent years, influenced not only by the
economic downturn and slow recovery but also
by employers’ changing perceptions of the importance
of OSH management. We brought together recruitment
experts from Shirley Parsons and Allen & York to
discuss these trends and to advise on how organisations
can attract the best candidates and how practitioners
can secure the best job offers.
LOUIS WUSTEMANN (LW): How is the job market?
AMANDA CLARKE (AC): The market generally is buoyant.
There are lots of opportunities across a range of sectors.
JACK CORNICK (JC): There is a subtle difference between
contract and permanent opportunities. The contract
market tends to peak and trough every two to three
weeks. However, it is strong and buoyant throughout
the year. There is demand for anyone from advisers to
mid-level management.
LW: Is that buoyancy influencing salaries after a period
of wage constraint?
JC: I would say so. There is a demand for skills, which
means certain companies are paying above market
value to get the right person.
AC: The starting salaries have gone up maybe £5,000
in London and the South East in the five years I’ve
followed the market. That’s had an upward effect on
I have seen what companies pay advisers and managers. There is a
candidates lot of competition for the most talented people.
interviewed LW: The Sentencing Council’s guidelines on OSH
two or three penalties has raised some organisations’ exposure to
higher fines; do you think that has pushed up pay?
want to be in court. I want to make sure we have a robust
management system, policies and procedures.”
JC: We are seeing clients move quickly to get the right
people. Interview processes have streamlined. I have seen
candidates interviewed two or three times over three or
four days to get everything in place. If we look at the IOSH
salary surveys in 2012 and 2017, the median salary has
remained relatively stable around £40k. But in higher-
risk industries such as construction, salaries have gone up
15% to 17% over that period. It doesn’t just come down to
the sentencing guidelines. It comes down to reputation.
Ten years ago, an incident may have been localised; now
there are incidents that make the national newspapers
and they are shared on social media. That can have a very
damaging effect, especially if you are a business that
supplies a service. Are people going to want to use you if
you are not committed to safety?
AC: Reputational risk is definitely factored in. You
can see that having an impact on the market when
[businesses] get someone in on a contractor/interim
basis while they hire for the permanent post. They can
get that person in fairly quickly and have someone
looking at [the issue]. It has had an impact on how
people are hiring.

times over AC: It has been a contributing factor. I have had people
three or four ring me and say: “I need to get someone in to look at
health and safety in my business because I am lying
days awake at night thinking about the guidelines... I don’t
Culture change
LW: If we look at what practitioners should think
about in job interviews, is that reputational protection
something they should focus on as well as compliance?

44 MAY 2018

JC: The market is in a period of transition where we
are moving away from a compliance culture to one where
people are very proactive about their safety standards.
There are businesses that have built their reputation on
having great safety standards. They are winning business
on the back of their safety performance and the way they
treat their workforces. The skills set of practitioners has
changed over time. There is now a market for specialist
contractors that work with businesses on a very niche
agenda. We are also seeing skills change from technical
to cultural ones. There is a real emphasis on soft skills –
people who can engage at any level in the business and
are adaptable to change.
LW: If practitioners want to demonstrate they have
those softer skills, what advice would you give?
AC: An astute professional could look at any
qualifications or skills gap [they have] on the soft skills
side. [They might] say, “I want to get into that position
of leadership/management in my organisation [or], in
my next organisation, is there a course I can go on to
do that?”. Think about soft skills when you are looking
at areas you can develop.
JC: It goes beyond the qualifications. If I am looking
at a CV, I look for things like key achievements. Every
organisation has a different culture and being able to
adapt your CV for every role you apply for is difficult
without going into that business and meeting them. If
you want to come across as an engaged practitioner, [try]
Recruitment market
working in cross-sectional and multidisciplinary teams. If
you are a safety adviser, any examples of where you have
liaised with directors or senior management are going to
come across well. It shows you can converse with people
at all levels of the business and are adaptable.
LW: IOSH’s Blueprint competency framework pushes
practitioners to find opportunities in their own
organisations to develop those soft skills.
AC: That’s something else that I would say to
candidates. Is there anyone running your business you
can learn from? If you are an adviser, is there a manager
or head of health and safety whom you can work with? Is
there anyone who you think is a good leader or engager?
What can you learn from them either informally or
through a more formal mentorship programme? It’s
about seeing what you can do in your current business to
make yourself stand out from others.
JC: It’s important to look at opportunities outside your
own business. There are groups on LinkedIn. People who We are
are actively mentoring others in the industry. Little things
like going to your local IOSH branch meetings can be a
seeing skills
great way to network and share knowledge. change
Fitting the role
from
LW: Do you think the level of qualifications employers technical
expect is changing?
AC: Probably more than 95% of the clients I work
to cultural
with, even looking for a junior or entry level person, ones
MAY 2018 45
Recruitment market
Amanda Clarke
Managing consultant, Shirley Parsons
Amanda Clarke has been with Shirley Parsons for four years and has built up a
wealth of experience across a range of sectors and organisations. She heads the
services division, leading a team which supports organisations in the corporate,
retail, property, consultancy, charity and public sectors. The team ensures
organisations can access the high-calibre health, safety, environment and quality
talent they need to develop.
would expect that person to have a minimum of a level
three qualification in health and safety; a National
Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health
(NEBOSH) certificate or equivalent qualification. It
really varies from industry to industry. I work more
with corporate businesses and there are two sides
to it. There is more of an emphasis on softer skills
and person fit. However, you still need a minimum
level of qualification to demonstrate competency. For
management level roles, you would be required to have
the NEBOSH diploma or equivalent. It comes down to the
contractual arrangements that businesses have.
JC: The drive for skills and qualifications remains
really strong and that goes across every single sector
but there is now more of an emphasis on skills outside
that, which employers are looking at. Just because a
job description says you need a NEBOSH diploma and
you’ve got one doesn’t mean you are going to get it.
Once you’re in the door and you can meet people, that’s
when you can find out a bit more about the culture and
where you are going to fit in with that business.
AC: You do see cases where the less-qualified
candidate on paper gets the job just because of how
they come across at interview. There is a perception
in businesses that, if there are any technical skills
gaps, you can normally train those people up. If you
get someone who is the right fit for your business,
it’s not a huge expense to put them through a
qualification. If you have someone who has all the
qualifications, all the bells and whistles but you know
they not going to gel in that team, they are not the
person you will want to hire.
LW: So a lot of organisations are looking to recruit on
talent as much as experience?
AC: I’ve placed candidates who have come from
high-risk businesses into more corporate or lower-
risk environments and I think that’s because they had
the right approach and were able to demonstrate that
transferability. But it does tend to be one way. If there’s
a person with transferable skills from a different
industry I would recommend [the business] consider
that candidate in addition. People do move industries.
I’ve seen some good examples where candidates
have made those transitions and done well. They can
sometimes offer a different perspective from someone
who has always been in that industry.
Competence test
LW: Leaving aside experience, do you see any difference
in the way candidates from different age groups
approach the recruitment process?
AC: For candidates coming out of school or university,
there is more emphasis on the STAR method, which is
46 MAY 2018
a way of answering interview questions. It stands for
Situation, Task, Action and Result. That methodical way
of answering competency-based interview questions is
something that people pick up on.
JC: I’ve seen different approaches from all
generations. Many people who are very experienced
are willing to try new things. Many are using social
media to share their success and to network; that
runs right across the age groups. What I have seen is
a slightly different approach to the way people move
roles. Candidates whom you would class as millennials
or slightly younger tend to move on a bit more quickly,
maybe every two to three years, whereas someone who
is a bit more experienced or has more longevity in the
market may stay four or five, but again that’s a very
broad generalisation.
AC: There is more of a focus around flexible ways
of working; more flexibility around office hours, more
homeworking or part-time working for people who
want a better work-life balance. You do see that in
people whom you wouldn’t expect to see it from at
that point in their careers.
JC: More people are conscious, regardless of how
old they are, about what they are set to gain from a
development perspective from any role they are going
for. So not only financially are they going to get support
for qualifications [but] are they going to work with
someone who is going to challenge them? We are also
seeing people are relocating to be closer to home. I’ve
seen lots of people take salary drops because they’ve not
wanted to travel two hours each way or a three-hour
round trip. There are exceptions to that rule – people
who are happy to stay away every night – but most
people are looking for a better work-life balance.
LW: Going back to the STAR technique, would you
recommend anyone who hasn’t come across it to learn
how to answer competency questions that way?
AC: Competency-based interviews are fairly
common. A lot of manager-level roles tend to be a
two-stage process and one of those as a minimum
would involve some competency-based interview
questions. The STAR method offers a very robust way
of answering them. You are trying to demonstrate a
competence that they are looking for, often a non-
technical one. So, for example: “Tell me about a time that
you led a team and had an issue. How did you resolve it?”
For some people, it comes naturally, but others would
Jack Cornick
Team leader, health, safety and construction,
Allen & York
Jack Cornick joined Allen & York in 2016 to head the well-established health and
safety team. His client base is varied and includes organisations that work in the
finance, construction, manufacturing, logistics, waste and corporate property
sectors. Allen & York’s extensive network of clients allows the team to provide
support for roles ranging from entry to director level. He and the team have a
combined experience of more than 20 years in health and safety recruitment
and they are proficient in recruiting for difficult-to-fill positions worldwide.
Most recently he has successfully recruited for positions in the UK, India and
mainland Europe. He takes a keen interest in market trends and regularly attends
conferences and seminars to ensure he is up to date with developments.
 33rd Asia Pacific Occupational
Safety and Health Organization
Annual Conference (APOSHO 33)
04–05 December 2018, Hong Kong

IOSH is hosting its first major event in the Asia Pacific APOSHO 33 offers an excellent opportunity to make
region, creating a unique platform for you to explore connections with OSH professionals, business leaders,
the safety and health profession in the area. academics and policy-makers from the region.

The call for papers and delegate bookings are now open.
Visit www.aposho-33.org to find out more.
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Event sponsors
Recruitment market
struggle for an answer. My advice would be to research
the STAR method if you have been advised that you will
be going for a competency-based interview. There are
examples of common questions on the internet. Then,
prepare examples for those that would fit the method.
JC: Ninety per cent of interviews I see conducted
in health and safety are competency-based, so have
examples ready. Be prepared to back up what you are
saying with experience and quantify it as well. Don’t
just talk about what you did but also why you did it and
the results you gained. In addition, it’s really good to be
prepared for any eventuality. I’ve seen a lot of companies
use innovative methods for their interviewing. Video
interviews seem to be quite common [or] candidates
talking into a camera on their laptop with no one to speak
to and just questions coming at them. Presentations
are really common as well. The competency-based
framework is great. It will cover you for at least one if not,
hopefully, both your interview stages.
AC: Candidates can get tasks sprung on them and part
of the process is to see how they respond.
LW: Interviewers are looking for people who can think
quickly and are not fazed?
AC: If you said to someone, “You’ve got 20 minutes to
prepare a presentation” and they didn’t do anything, it
would give the interviewer an indication of how they react
under pressure. It’s not as if they are expecting a perfect
presentation. It’s more about seeing what the candidate
prioritises in that time.
Etiquette for interviewers
LW: However scary it is to be the candidate it’s also
scary to be the interviewer and be afraid of recruiting
Throughout the time that you
the wrong person. There is a lot riding on it for the
organisation as well.
are on the premises, you are
AC: It works both ways. The candidate also wants to
find out if the company is the right fit for them. Don’t
being judged on how you act
let the pressure of “I’ve got to be perfect” get to you.
Interviewers recognise that candidates are human and
and behave
that they get nervous. The stress of the situation is taken
into account. For interviewers, if you haven’t interviewed
48 MAY 2018
before or for a while, brush up on your skills. We do
sometimes get feedback from candidates [like], “That was
a pretty terrible interview.”
JC: Something we are seeing a lot more of is candidates
realising, especially in a skills-short market, that they
hold a lot of power. I have seen candidates get to a final
stage and [receive] an offer, then turn round and say,
“I’m really sorry but at that final interview I didn’t quite
get the answers I wanted from my questions. I’m not
sure this business matches my ambitions as a safety
professional.” I tell employers, “Let them ask questions,
let them be inquisitive and curious about what you
are doing” because they don’t want to come away still
having questions. The best place to be after a final-stage
interview is for both sides to know where they stand
and they have all the information they need to make a
decision. As a candidate going into an interview I would
feel a lot more empowered by that. You don’t hold all the
cards but it’s much more of a two-way street than it was
five to ten years ago.
AC: Interviewers and their businesses should also
be aware of their reputation in the marketplace when
it comes to recruitment. Some businesses still have
cumbersome and longwinded application processes. If
you make candidates spend an hour or two filling in an
online application form just to get an automated rejection
or email… is there any way that you can streamline
that process? Can you communicate to candidates more
effectively and more quickly? Gaps between first and
second interviews can be over a month and the market is
moving quickly, so is there any way [the company] can
speed this up?
JC: To add to that, it’s not just about recruitment,
it’s about retention. There is a common mistake I see
employers make: they oversell opportunities. Candidates
have gone into an interview and been given maybe false
expectations of what the business is really like, what
it is looking to achieve and how engaged it is. They are
recruited and three to four months later it’s not quite
how it was explained at the interview. All of a sudden,
they are looking [for a job] again. Don’t feel because it’s a
skills-short market that you need to sell the opportunity.
Be honest, be transparent. Not only will you get the right
person, you will keep them for a long time.
LW: As a candidate going into an interview, how much
should you push the interviewer?
JC: There’s a difference between being challenging
and being curious. I have seen candidates who have
gone into an interview and been really challenging. They
ask almost too many questions and challenge the way
the business does things. You don’t really know how the
employer is going to take that. There’s a point in the
middle where you want to know a company’s lost-time
injury rates and find out about where they’ve been and
where they want to go. Also, as an interviewer, give
candidates the opportunity to ask those questions.
Don’t just assume they will ask throughout the

interview. Give them the opportunity and don’t be
offended if it is a particularly challenging question
because if it does end up that you get the right person
that’s the best result.
Paper ambassador
LW: What do you see as the most common mistakes that
candidates make throughout the recruitment process?
AC: You can go right back to the CV stage. You need a
high-quality, well-crafted CV. It is the first thing most
employers are going to see. You need to make sure it’s
concise but not too brief. [Avoid] the basic things like
incorrect telephone numbers and spelling mistakes.
Something that candidates may not realise is, if you
apply a lot through job boards or company application
systems, if you don’t have a postcode it can be hard
for that system to pick up where you are. Then, it’s
about demonstrating your responsibilities and key
achievements and skills on the CV.
JC: It’s difficult to tailor a CV specifically to
a certain type of role. If a candidate is active in
the market, they may be looking at five to seven
opportunities with different organisations. Also, you
don’t really know until you meet the organisation
what it is they are looking for. Try not to be too
specific. Be general on your CV but be very specific
about what you have achieved. Don’t miss out
[important] qualifications but don’t list all of them.
Stick to your five to ten key qualifications that are
relevant. Bullet points are good to highlight key
experience.
LW: Rather than tailoring a CV to each role, are you saying
that what you want is the best general version?
JC: It depends on the candidate’s situation. If you are
applying for only one job, then yes, tailor your CV.
AC: You need a strong, general CV that provides a really
good overview of what you can bring. If you can tailor
it for a specific job, I would recommend it. However, I
appreciate the situations under which candidates apply.
For contract roles, for example, it can be that they just
want to see some CVs by the end of the day and interview
candidates the next day.
JC: Don’t forget opportunities beyond the CV to
demonstrate specific experience relating to the role.
Covering letters are good examples or personal profiles
that candidates can attach to their CVs.
Interview blunders
LW: What are the common mistakes candidates make?
AC: It’s around [lack of] preparation. You need
to research the company thoroughly. Look at their
website and at Google News to see if they have
been in the news recently. Look at the profile of the
people you will be meeting with on LinkedIn. Look
at the wider industry they are in and any trends. At
the interview, a common question is “Tell me about
yourself”, so have a concise pitch and be able to sell
yourself well.
LW: If you can’t talk articulately to them about what
you are doing and what motivates you, they might take
that as an example of what you’d be like if they offered
you the role?
JC: It’s important at the interview stage that you
come over as professional and engaged [but don’t
forget] informal meetings or site tours where those
companies are looking to see how you engage with the
Recruitment market
It’s easier to go into a company
and explain your motivation if
you have a long-term plan
workforce. Potential employers view an interview
very much as an across-the-table conversation but
be wary. Throughout the time that you are on their
premises, you are being judged on how you act and
behave. There are many times where candidates
have fallen short because they have relaxed after
they’ve walked out of the interview room.
LW: Are there any final points you would make about
what candidates should consider when applying for
a new role?
AC: Think about what your long-term goal is and
how your next job move is going to get you there.
JC: It’s also easier to go into a company and
explain your motivation if you have a long-term
plan but it must be realistic. If your goal is to be
safety director of Marks & Spencer, you have to
understand that that role probably only becomes
available once every five to ten years. So perhaps
safety director with a FTSE 100 business would be
a good way to go and work towards [the more
specific one].
LW: On this point, do you see much divergence of
OSH job titles?
AC: It can be difficult to read too much into job
titles. I work with businesses where they would term
everyone as an HSEQ manager regardless of how
much environment and quality is involved in those
positions. There are organisations where they’ve
looked at the health and safety business partner
title, so someone who partners with operational
teams and senior managers rather than someone
who manages or takes ownership of it.
JC: We are seeing more business partners. It
stems from the [rise of the] HR business partner.
That became quite prevalent and they’ve taken that
and run it in health and safety. It sits somewhere
between an adviser and a manager level in terms
of responsibilities. Job titles can be misleading but
sometimes they can be important in terms of how
safety is run in a business. When I am speaking to
candidates and clients, I am more conscious of the
job role than the title.
AC: It’s becoming a part of normal business
operations as opposed to “there’s the health and
safety department and they do health and
safety”. It’s more about getting everyone
onboard and qualified; getting people
interested and looking to make it part of
business activities rather than an add-on
you have to do. ●
An extended text version of this article and a
video of the discussion is available online at
www.ioshmagazine.com/recruitment-rt
MAY 2018 49
Lexicon
is for
benchmarking
Words: BRIDGET LEATHLEY
I
n the middle ages cobblers notched their
© iStock/Ksenia Palimski
worktops with the size of a customer’s foot, so
that while working on a new shoe they could
check it against the mark on their bench –
against the benchmark.
EU-OSHA’s 2015 Review of Successful Occupational
Safety and Health Benchmarking Initiatives
(bit.ly/2GgWSOo) defines benchmarking as “a
planned process by which an organisation compares
its health and safety processes and performance
with others to learn how to reduce accidents and ill
health, improve compliance with safety and health
law and/or cut compliance costs”.
The Annex A guidance to the new OSH
management system standard ISO 45001 places
emphasis on benchmarking not merely as a means
to achieve compliance but as a way to identify
opportunities to improve.
“Zero harm” is a vision, not a benchmark.
Organisations that wish to progress towards that
vision need to look not just at accident statistics and
health surveillance, but also at process indicators,
such as air quality measurements, training attended,
or preventive maintenance completed.
It is tempting to measure that which is easy to
count. Even with process indicators, ISO 45001 focuses
on quantitative benchmarks, giving the example of
percentage corrective actions completed on time. But
benchmarks don’t have to be numbers or percentages.
Even if we don’t call it that, our shared benchmark
is compliance with the law. But scoring your
organisation’s compliance is less useful than knowing
what you can do to improve. According to EU-OSHA,
“benchmarking schemes with requirements to collect
performance data are less attractive to members than
Even with those involving the sharing of good OSH practice”.
Counting process indicators has a further flaw.
the right Can you prove that more training courses, more
benchmark audits or more risk assessments make the workplace
safer? Benchmarking best practice, rather than
and the right counting, might have more face validity with those
benchmarking you need to engage in the process.
Who you choose depends on what you want to
partners, the benchmark. If the problem is machine guarding,
final pitfall is you’ll need to find organisations using similar
equipment; if the problem is the quality of risk
complacency assessments, you’ll have a broader choice. Larger
if you find organisations might benchmark between their own
sites, which overcomes commercial concerns, but
you are doing can still lead to friction.
better than The easiest benchmarks are publicly available.
This includes national accident statistics, particularly
others if they can be viewed by industry or type of injury.
50 MAY 2018
Recap our A to Z of core safety
and health terms
ioshmagazine.com/type/lexicon
Guidance and codes of practice, such as those from
regulators and trade bodies, provide a qualitative
benchmark of process.
Because of commercial confidentiality or
fear of reputation damage, the best benchmark
information might not be widely available, leading
trade associations and other sector groups to form
benchmarking clubs. EU-OSHA’s report found these
were more successful if participants felt “a trusted
neutral broker” was collecting the information.
Andrew Griffiths, head of health and safety at
charity The Prince’s Trust, began a benchmarking
exercise while working for another not-for-profit
organisation. The representatives from several
charities met several times, but “found that sharing
data was complex”. Griffiths says: “It required a lot
of data conversion and normalisation to be able to
compare each party’s information. For example, we
had different definitions for an ‘adverse event’.”
Some benchmarking co-ordinators, such as the
Universities Safety and Health Association and the
Paper and Board Industry Advisory Committee, are
specific to a sector; others, such as VRM
(www.virtualriskmanager.net), work across any
industry but focus on one topic (in this case,
fleet safety). Others work across sectors and
topics. The Safety, Health and Environment Intra
Industry Benchmarking Association (www.sheiiba.
com) enables paying and contributing members
to share qualitative data, while Onsite Insights
(onsiteinsights.co.uk) arranges visits to share good
practice and innovation in a range of business areas,
including safety and health.
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
backed the Corporate Health and Safety Performance
Index (CHaSPI) from 2006 to 2012 as a free,
web-based benchmarking system providing a
common measure of OSH performance across
sectors. Many organisations found CHaSPI useful as
a gap analysis tool but they were reluctant to share
even anonymised results with others. CHaSPI never
reached a critical mass of information, without
which quantitative benchmarking activities are not
seen as valuable by prospective participants.
Even with the right benchmark and the
right benchmarking partners, the final pitfall is
complacency if you find you are doing better than
others. As ISO 45001 makes clear, benchmarking
is part of continuous improvement. Or as a
now-withdrawn HSE publication Health and
Safety Benchmarking: improving together stated:
“Benchmarking is a means to an end, not an end
in itself.” ●
 IOSH Approved
Health & Safety
NVQ specialist Coaching for safety
provider
Better solutions ➔ less risk
Better buy-in ➔ more ownership
Better engagement ➔ safer behaviour

22nd and 23rd May 2018

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 Browse hundreds of safety and health jobs
 Free CV upload
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MAY 2018 51
 43rd National Safety and
Health Conference
Influencing change to enhance your workplace culture
Thursday 14 June 2018
The Nottingham Belfry, Mellors Way, Nottingham, NG8 6PY

Visit www.iosh.co.uk/NSHC18 today to find out more about the event

Enter now for the

Excellence Awards 2018
The Excellence Awards
celebrate the outstanding
achievements of IOSH
volunteers, members and
committees worldwide.
They recognise great
engagement with
others inside and
outside the profession
on occupational safety
and health issues.
Not only are the awards
an opportunity to
celebrate and showcase
your work: winning can
raise the profile of your
network and share best
practice and industry
knowledge.
Entries for the Excellence Awards
2018 are open to volunteers,
members and committees only.

Closing date for entries is 15 July 2018.

Visit www.iosh.co.uk/excellence to find out more.

IM/130418/PDF

IM0XXX Excellence Awards HalfPg Ad v2.indd 1 16/04/2018 11:34

52 MAY 2018
Off duty
Dean Bailey CMIOSH
Head of health and safety, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
I
had asthma as a child, so at school I always
came last in cross-country running. I joined the
army at 16, and that’s when I started doing lots
of sport: rugby, boxing and so on. Running was
always a big part of those sports.
I served 18 years in the army and when I left a
friend suggested health and safety as a career. I did
my NEBOSH certificate as part of my pre-release
and joined Hampshire police as a civilian station
duty officer, later becoming the Unison union’s local
health and safety lead. I worked as a local authority
inspector for four and a half years, gained my
NEBOSH diploma and then moved to the National
Health Service (NHS), where I’ve been for 16 years.
During this time, I started running 10k races.
With my history of asthma, fitness has been a real
motivation; keeping my lungs healthy drives me.
In 2011, I teamed up with some ex-army guys and
did an “ultra” run in aid of veterans’ mental health
charity Combat Stress. It was called the Thunder Run,
and we raised about £2,500. An ultra is anything
above marathon distance. In general, they are 30-
plus miles, and they can be 50 miles or more.
Some people start off with road running and
move on to trail running. Some people run one
ultra and they get the bug straightaway. I now run
trails, ranging in distance from 10 km, through half-
marathons and marathons, up to double marathons.
Although this is off-road running, you do go across
roads, but most of it is on trails or tracks, through
An ultra is wooded areas and across marshland. It’s a lot better
on the knees and ankles than running on the road.
anything above You also develop a much stronger core: you’re
marathon changing direction a lot and running on uneven
ground, so it works your core and your ankles a lot.
distance... they My daughter has joined me doing ultras. Last year,
can be 50 miles we did the Race to the King together – a 54-mile
non-stop race across the South Downs from Arundel
or more to Winchester. We ran in aid of the British Heart
Foundation in memory
of a family member who
died in 2016, and raised
£1,400. It’s a really
good, well-organised
race, and the setting on
the downs is beautiful.
Running can be
addictive, but when
running ultras you’re
not going at the same
pace as in a marathon.
It’s much slower,
which allows you much more enjoyment of the
environment. There are often beautiful views that
enhance the experience. You carry food and water,
and you have to learn how to hydrate and eat with
gels and snacks. There is a lot of training: I ran more
than 1,000 miles last year.
As well as the pure joy of running, one of the best
things is the comradeship. Running ultras isn’t like
10k runs, where everyone finishes at around the same
time and leaves. If you’re running a looped race,
you’re meeting people all the time. And in a point-
to-point race, the support crews are fabulous. At
every aid station you have food and water, massage
and a medical team. You’re supported by trained and
qualified people at every stage. On top of that, lots of
people do ultras to raise money for charity, and often
some of the entry fee goes to charity, which is a good
feeling.
The blisters can be a challenge: having six or
seven on your foot at 40 miles and knowing you’ve
got another 14 miles to go, that’s an experience! But
you work through it. You have to keep going. It’s
about coping with the mental stress – and it’s why
you have to train. The emotions when you finish an
ultra are incredible, especially when you’re running
for charity or for a loved one. It’s really good to finish
the race and see my wife Fiona there to meet me.
You risk assess the run. You have to make sure
you have the right kit for the weather and, as you
run, you assess your hydration and so on. Health
and safety is a bit like an ultra run: you know it’s
going to be a challenge, you have to pace yourself,
you need the support of others, and you have to
have the right equipment. Most of all, you need to
look after yourself and make sure you get home
safely at the end of the day. I find both health and
safety and running very rewarding, and I have a
good work-life balance.
It’s a good mix of men and women – probably
around 65% to 35% – and you have every age, from
the younger runners in their twenties to the oldest
guy I’ve met who was 84. An ultra race becomes like
a big family.
Once you’ve finished a race, you’re sore and in
pain and you think to yourself that you couldn’t
do it again. Then five minutes later the euphoria
hits you. ●
MAY 2018 53
Recruitment
“I want to move from manufacturing to construction. I’m well
qualified but can’t get interviews because of lack of experience.
What should I do?”
Often, health and safety professionals
work within one sector for the duration
of their careers. However, we are seeing
more candidates who are looking to
broaden their experience by moving
between sectors, and expanding their
skills-sets to move up the career ladder.
Transferring from manufacturing to
construction is daunting and can be a hard
transition. However, it’s not impossible
as long as you are fully committed
to learning the necessary knowledge
and skills. The right candidate, for
example, will have researched the area of
construction they are then interviewed
for, will be able to use key terminology in
the right context, and be familiar with the
latest industry trends.
Of those looking to move sectors, the
most successful candidates are those
who are determined and willing to
gain construction experience alongside
HEALTH & SAFETY PROFESSIONALS
YOUR CAREER IS IN SAFE HANDS
EHS MANAGER INTERNATIONAL
Ipswich, £55,000-£70,000
A manufacturing and logistics company is
looking for an EHS manager to implement
and report on all EHS Programmes
and activities across UK, European and
International sites. You will maintain
international management system standards
ISO 9001, 14001, 18001. Strong experience
in the manufacturing industry and good
knowledge of environmental aspects
are required. You must be keen to travel
nationally and internationally and be an IOSH
member working towards CMIOSH with
diploma in OHS or equivalent. Ref: 2036711
Paul Snell
T: 020 7259 8724
E: paul.snell@hays.com
hays.co.uk/hs
IOSH Magazine - 27-04-18 .indd 1
54 MAY 2018
To advertise your vacancy, contact advertisingsales@lexisnexis.co.uk
Ask a recruiter
their current roles. I would also advise
completing the NEBOSH Construction
Certificate in addition to qualifications you
already have as a first step to making the
move. This will demonstrate how serious
you are about moving into a role in the
industry, with the next step being gaining
hands-on experience.
Manufacturing businesses can often
take on machinery upgrade projects or
work to extend their factories to increase
capacity. If this happens where you are
working, it is a superb opportunity to
gain hands-on construction experience.
Your current company will most likely
be undertaking these types of projects
so do try to get involved with them, as
any interviewer will want to hear of your
initiative to gain construction safety
experience.
It’s important to be aware that hiring
managers will tend to prefer candidates
HEAD OF RISK
Manchester, £50,000-£65,000
A property management company
based in the North West area is currently
seeking a head of risk to join its business.
You will develop the risk, compliance,
security and business continuity strategy
including corporate governance and the
management plan. You will provide strategic
leadership to the risk and compliance team
in property services as well as security
service development of business continuity,
emergency and incident management plans.
Ref: 3270855
Ciara Hamilton
T: 01244 322857
E: ciara.hamilton@hays.com
from their industry as they will have
been exposed to similar risks and safety
issues that are only applicable to that
sector. However, this is predominant in
sectors such as rail, nuclear or oil and
gas but the number of professionals able
to transition is increasing mainly due to
heightened demand for health and safety
professionals.
Moving sectors is a benefit for both
you and your new employer. You will
be expanding your knowledge and
experience and your employer will gain
an employee with a fresh outlook, new
ideas and a willingness to learn. If you
have done your research, have some
basic construction experience and can
demonstrate a real desire to learn and add
value to the sector, you will be well placed
to make this move.
Caroline Binns is a director for
Hays Health & Safety and recruits
interim HSE professionals across
London and the South of England.
T: 020 7259 8724
E: caroline.binns@hays.com
SHEQ MANAGER
West Midlands, £55,000 + car allowance
A specialist civil engineering and utilities
firm requires a group SHEQ manager to
run a strategic and operational health and
safety role. You will review and implement
policy and procedure, carry out site visits,
deliver training and promote a positive
health and safety culture. This is an exciting
role where you will have a number of direct
reports and be responsible for quality
standards and management systems.
Ref: 3261327
Hope Thorley
T: 0116 253 8097
E: hope.thorley@hays.com
16/04/2018 14:49
 CDM 2015 Principal Designers and Client and Principal
Designer Advisors
C-MIST is a long-established, leading organisation providing CDM services to prestigious construction industry clients. As part of our expansion programme, we are
looking for construction professionals with design, management and/or a high level of health and safety experience to undertake various roles, but typically Principal
Designer and Client Advisor. Candidates should have a sound knowledge of design and construction processes and the application of the CDM regulations. In return we
offer an attractive package, including training and personal development for the right enthusiastic candidates. Salary is negotiable and dependent upon experience
and qualifications.
Requirements
• Qualification in Design, Construction and/or Diploma in construction related • Team player who can also work independently from home base and manage
Health and Safety client requirements
• Membership of APS at CMaPS or IMaPS or industry equivalent (ICS, ICE, IIRSM) • Driving licence and willing to travel
• Membership of professional body – e.g. RIBA, RICS, ICE, CIOB, IOSH • Good document writing skills
• Construction Health and Safety experience • Good communication skills and can drive business objectives with clients
• Experience on large complex projects with residential content
Location
C-MIST provides client services all over the UK from our office locations in Edinburgh and London and there is the flexibility to work from home. The successful candidate
will be provided with the facilities to enable an efficient working environment at home or office.
Principle Designers / Advisors are required in the Greater London area.
Key Duties
Successful candidates will be working with our nationally recognized clients on construction projects to carry out CDM duties and advise on CDM 2015 and will be part
of our regional CDM teams.
• Providing Principal Designer services and Principal Designer Support • Reviewing designs on behalf of the Client to ensure that the “General Principles
• Providing an advisory and support service to Construction Industry Clients of Prevention” are applied by Principal Designer and Designers
• Advising clients and discharging Client Duties under CDM • Ensuring practical implementation of CDM on site
Apply in writing including CV and Covering Letter to construction@c-mist.com

IT’S ABOUT FEELING PROUD OF WHAT YOU DO EVERYDAY

Health and Safety Consultants
£Competitive + bonus + car scheme + pension | Across North East Scotland and South East England

At NFU Mutual, we understand the importance of developing strong relationships. It’s what we have
built our reputation on, as one of the UK’s leading general insurers and financial services companies, and
it’s what keeps our customers loyal. Our continued growth and success depends on our people and with
this in mind we recognise and reward the contributions they make and help them to develop and realise
their full potential. To help us maintain efficient and consistent service across the UK, we are looking for
experienced Health and Safety Consultants across North East Scotland and South East England.
Home based and reporting to the Senior Health and Safety Consultant, you’ll be involved in undertaking
surveys on industrial, commercial and agricultural businesses. Ideally, you’ll have proven experience in
surveying a variety of businesses and have good all round knowledge of Health and Safety and fire risk
assessments. Experience of HACCPs and noise assessments would also be an advantage.
You’ll need to be a Chartered Member of IOSH or hold another relevant professional qualification,
possess excellent communication and report writing skills, and hold a full valid driving licence.
To apply, please visit our website www.nfumutualcareers.co.uk
Closing date: 20 May 2018.

We are an Equal Opportunities Employer.

MAY 2018 55
Job name 033001_125x185_IOSHMag_H&SConsultants_190318.indd Artist AM
FINAL
Publication IOSH Magazine JB SH

B&M Waste Services
H&S Manager and Auditor
B&M Waste Services is a customer centric, forward thinking waste
and recycling solutions provider with depots located on the Wirral,
Manchester, Preston, Leeds and most recently, Birmingham. Due to our
ongoing expansion our award winning, family run business is seeking a
talented, hardworking and ambitious H&S Manager and Auditor to help
us maintain and further improve our H&S practices across our growing
business.
This role is required to act as the on-site H&S practitioner and auditor
who will deliver hands-on cultural training and further improve the
current practices and systems which are in place. You will develop
positive relationships with the operational management teams including
office staff, drivers and operatives, to improve ‘on-the ground’ morale
and ensure zero injuries occur.
A team player, you’ll work with the HR, EQC & Facilities Manager to
ensure your work links closely with the quality systems and company
record keeping. You’ll audit the systems in place and work together to
refine these to perfection within a rapid time frame. You’ll also work
closely with the Senior Management Team to report any issues as well
as improvements implemented.
To apply, please email Recuitment@bagnallandmorris.com
Assistant Director – Health & Safety
Locations across the North West and East Midlands
Permanent, 35 hours a week
£55,000 – £60,000 + car allowance + benefits
Jigsaw Homes Group will be created on 3rd April 2018 through the merger of the New Charter
Group and Adactus Housing Group. Jigsaw will be one of the largest housing associations
in Greater Manchester with 33,000 properties and due to this expansion we are looking to
appoint our first Assistant Director for Health & Safety. This is a fantastic opportunity to provide
strategic support and operational guidance in a role where you can have significant impact.
You’ll be joining an organisation where a health & safety culture already exists having met
the RoSPA gold accreditation in two of its Group companies. Based in Greater Manchester,
the role will require some travel to sites across the North West and East Midlands. You should
hold a NEBOSH Diploma level qualification and be a Chartered Member of IOSH. Experience of
managing and leading others is essential and experience of a housing or building construction
environment would be an advantage.
The Role:
• Ensure the provision of expert professional advice to the executive management team
• Responsibility for promoting and leading a progressive H&S culture
• Provide leadership to the health & safety team across all locations
• Develop safety systems, initiatives and training programmes
• Provide a clear sense of strategic direction, ensuring technical competence is maintained
• Manage Group health & safety budgets and resources
The Candidate:
• NEBOSH Diploma and General Certificate
• Able to persuade and influence effectively at all levels
• Able to manage safety within a multi-site organisation
• Excellent verbal and written skills, capable of presenting reports to Boards and other stakeholders
• Strategic solutions focused approach
Reference: NC1092
Closing date for this role is 5pm Friday 20th April 2018. For further information and to download
the job profile and person specification go to www.newchartercareers.co.uk
For an informal discussion contact Christine Amyes – Executive Director of Organisational
Transition on 0161 331 2206.
IOSH’S APPROVED CAREERS SITE
 Browse hundreds of safety and health jobs
 Free CV upload
 Read advice from recruiters and OSH leaders
Is your company recruiting?
Your IOSH membership gets your company 15%
discount on all listings
www.healthandsafety-jobs.co.uk
 YOUR GLOBAL
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