Latest News in Health, Safety & the Environment

The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 will come into force on 6 April 2012, updating pevious asbestos regulations to take account of the European Commission’s view that the UK had not fully implemented the EU Directive on exposure to asbestos (Directive 2009/148/EC).  In practice, the changes are fairly limited and mean that some types of non-licensed work with asbestos...

 The HSE's 'Fees for Intervention' (FFI) scheme under which it plans to recover its investigation costs from businesses it finds to be in breach of health and safety law, will not now start in April, as originally planned.The regulator has announced today that further discussion of "technical details" is required before the scheme can be launched. Owing to parliamentary process this means it will...

  The HSE has just completed a two-week shadowing initiative to train inspectors in its new cost-recovery scheme, which begins next month. it has also been revealed that the term “material breach” – which will be eligible for a fee once rectified to the HSE’s satisfaction –  has been changed to the term “contravention”. Companies found to...

The Government says it is committed to introducing a streamlined process for handling employers’ liability and public liability claims, but needs to consult on the detail.Issuing its response to a consultation paper, Solving disputes in the county courts, the Government intends to introduce a scheme to cover such claims as part of a package of measures to reform the civil-justice regime.However,...

A Glasgow-based company has been fined £133,000 for failing to rectify unsafe work practices prior to an incident where a worker suffered fatal head injuries on an unguarded lathe.John Smith, 53, was working as a fitter at Railcare Ltd’s facility in Charles Street, Springburn, when the incident took place on 15 December 2008. There were no witnesses to the incident but it is thought that...

The revised 14001 will be one of the first international management systems standards to adopt a new format, confirms International Standards Organisation (ISO). At the first meeting of the working group established to revise 14001, the environment management systems standard, it was agreed to structure the new version around ISO's recently launched high-level structure for management system standards....