Latest News in Health, Safety & the Environment

 From the start of next year, training providers and employers offering apprenticeships will no longer have to comply with any requirements that go ‘above and beyond’ health and safety legislation.Announcing new measures last week as part of the Government’s Plan for Growth, Business secretary Vince Cable said red tape that can deter employers from taking on apprentices would...

The provisional figure for the number of workers fatally injured in 2010/11 is 171, and corresponds to a rate of fatal injury of 0.6 per 100 000 workers. Given that these statistics are based on a count of events that are rare, they are highly subject to chance variation from one year to the next. Therefore, when seeking to use the data to make inferences about changes in the inherent dangerousness...

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) urged employers to do more to reduce the worrying number of work-related road traffic accidents (RTA). IOSH made the call after research it commissioned with TRL (Transport Research Laboratory) revealed that many companies are spending money on road safety strategies, with little confirmation on whether they actually produce results. Currently,...

The Law Society has accused the insurance industry of spreading obfuscation and confusion about the existence of a compensation culture.The row surfaced following the publication of a report by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), which calls for an end to the UK’s ‘have a go’ compensation culture. The report also urges the Government to implement Lord Justice Jackson's proposals...

 The HSE is seeking views on revising the Control of Asbestos Regulations to bring them into line with the parent European Directive.The consultation follows the European Commission’s reasoned opinion earlier this year that the UK had under-implemented Article 3(3) of the Directive 2003/18/EC. The Article provides for the exemption of some types of lower-risk work with asbestos from three...

Waste costs have risen relentlessly since 1997 following the introduction of the landfill tax. The pressure to control cost and ensure compliance has increased still further this year in England and Wales since the passing of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011. There is now a legal duty on anyone creating commercial or industrial waste to apply the waste hierarchy in deciding on the best...