Alliance with Compliance

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has now drawn its two year campaign on risk assessments to a close.

The campaign examined the risk assessment attitudes and behaviours of organisations of various sizes across Europe. The findings are somewhat surprising - between 10%-15% of SMEs do not carry out risk assessments despite this being a legal requirement!

And the reasons why? A large percentage of companies just do not deem this necessary and simply do not conduct risk assessments or even documented general workplace checks. This may indicate that SMEs have fewer problems than larger companies, or that they lack awareness and knowledge.

The campaign also bought to light some of the main issues that companies are concerned about in the workplace: accidents, musculoskeletal disorders and stress being the top three - all of which can be less of a concern with a documented risk assessment.

www.westminstercompliance.co.uk

London property developer fined £10k for safety breaches

A London property developer and landlord has been fined £10,000 at City of London Magistrates Court after workers on two of his developments were put at risk. The court heard how Mr Mohamed failed on both sites to appoint a competent contractor and failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that proper arrangements were in place for work to be managed safely - putting workers and neighbours at risk. Open flames were used at Chingford Mount Road site, which is close to a petrol station, but there were no fire extinguishers on site. Inspectors also found that scaffolding at the property was substandard or missing and had insufficient guard rails, while 240 volt power tools were used in areas where the cables were likely to be damaged, creating a risk of electrocution and fire. Domestic quality cables were also run through damp areas. HSE inspectors ordered works to down tools after visiting the site.

Building.co.uk