Leading Health and Safety
at Work
Health and Safety Management Responsibilities
of Principal Investigators and Managers
Why Health and Safety Is Important
• Reputation
– University of Nottingham aims for excellence in
teaching and research
– Quality in teaching and research is achieved
through quality in all aspects of operations.
– Bad publicity from unsafe, unhealthy or
environmentally damaging events undermines
this.
• Moral imperative
– To provide a safe and healthy working
environment
– Clear conscience
Why Health and Safety Is Important
•
Legal requirements
– Law specifies standards
– Penalties if not followed
•
Financial Reasons
– Staff absences
– Lost output/data
– Damaged equipment
– Compensation pay-outs and insurance
premiums
– Uninsured costs >>> Insured costs
Legal Environment
• Statutory Law
• Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
• Duties towards employees, students and visitors
– Ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, health, safety
and welfare at work
• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
– Duties on manager to ensure the above
– Risk assessment!!!
• Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
– Death resulting from systemic failures to manage health and safety
– Implies senior management failures in risk management
– See Podcast for further information
Penalties
• Prosecution – fines and imprisonment.
• Prohibition Notice – stop work now
• Improvement notices – put certain measure in
place within a specified time
• Corporate Manslaughter Penalties
– Unlimited fine
– Publicity order
Civil Liability
• Common Law Duty of Care owed to employees,
students & visitors.
• Failure can result in personal injury claims for
negligence.
Organisation – lines of responsibility
Safety
Committee
Council
Registrar
Head of
School/Service
n
University
Safety Officer
Managers/PIs/
Snr Academics
School/Section
Safety Officers
Lab safety
Monitors
Individuals
Responsibility
Advice
Information
Safety Responsibilities
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•
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Risk assessment
Training
Competency
Supervision
Monitoring
•
Detailed information can be found in the University’s Safety
Management Standard:
‘Effective Safety Management’: http://nottingham.ac.uk/safety/safetymanagement/esm/effective-safety.aspx
Risk Assessment
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For all hazardous activities/procedures
New procedures
New & existing equipment
Written SOPs [standard operating procedures]
Signed off by PI/Snr academic/manager
Risk Assessment continued
• Procedural
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–
–
Substances [ e.g.chemicals, biological material]
Equipment
Manual handling
Cylinders
Cryogenics
• DSE
• Lone working
Training & Competence
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Identify training needs – initial & ongoing
Ensure training delivered by competent person
Assess competency
Record training and attainment of competency
(specific record form, PSRF or e lab book)
Training Delivery
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University & External courses
Local induction
Job/task specific training (techniques & equipment)
Refresher training
– When procedure/equipment changes
– High risk operations
– Infrequent operations
– Following accident/incident
– Where competency is in question
Competency Assessment
• Assess practical skills & knowledge
• Assessment by competent person
• Methods of assessment
• Written test [ e.g. induction questionnaire
• Verbal discussion/questioning
• Observation [ for practical tasks]
• Self assessment [ where appropriate]
• Continual assessment – ensure standards maintained
Supervision
Levels of supervision are
determined by:
• the severity of the hazard
and
• the complexity of the
control measures
required to reduce risk
• the competence of the
person
Source HSE – HSG 65
Monitoring
• Active monitoring
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–
–
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Local housekeeping checks – recorded.
Regular meetings [ present findings of above]
Regular entry into the lab by PI – to check
School safety inspections & audits
• Accident/incident/near misses
– Reported
– Investigated
Remember
• You can delegate safety management duties
• You cannot delegate legal responsibility
• You remain accountable in law for the safety of
students/staff that you manage/supervise