New Health and Safety Inspection Scheme
PR 152
22 March 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Great Yarmouth Borough Council is the first in the Eastern Counties to adopt wholeheartedly a new health and safety strategy to inspect working premises.
The Health and Safety Commission, the governing body for health and safety enforcement, has produced a strategy of how it thinks enforcement agencies can make the best use of their resources in regard to incidents of ill health and accidents in the workplace - it is called Fit 3.
Fit 3 looks at three aspects, fit for work, fit for life and fit for tomorrow. It entails inspectors looking at potential causes of injury, ill health and how a business or organisation manages these.
Great Yarmouth’s environment and health team is the only one in the region to change its work practices completely to fit in with the new programme.
“Other local authorities are approaching Fit 3 by planning specific campaigns,” said Commercial Manager Derryth Wright.
“But we made the decision to adopt it completely as our way of working from April. We see it as a more sensible way to manage our time and resources to the best effect.
“Currently, when we visit premises there can be up to 30 things that we have to look at during a 90-minute inspection.
“The new scheme has looked at types of businesses and identified what type of risks they potentially present. The Fit programme is then based on assessing those risks most likely to cause people to be off work, these include falls from heights, transport issues, asbestos, asthma, dermatitis, back injuries, moving goods safely, and slips and trips.
“This allows us to spend time on the aspects that most need attention.”
The team has also produced a 12 month calendar of the types of business they will inspect, for example, April and May will see visits to industrial estates, while in June the focus will be on caravan sites and July it will be hotels.
This does not mean that they will not be answering calls to inspect any type of premises if an incident is reported or a complaint received.
“Part of the inspections, especially in the leisure industry, will look at noise levels to help businesses be prepared for new legislation which comes into place next year,” added Derryth.
The full calendar is:
|
Month
|
Type of Business
|
Main Concerns
|
|
April
|
Industrial Estates
|
Falls
|
|
May
|
Industrial Estates
|
Falls
|
|
June
|
Caravan Sites
|
Transport and asbestos
|
|
July
|
Hotels
|
Falls and noise
|
|
August
|
Leisure
|
Asbestos and noise
|
|
September
|
Craft Bakeries
|
Asthma
|
|
October
|
Hairdressers
|
Dermatitis
|
|
November
|
Care Homes
|
Back injuries and slips
|
|
December
|
Retail
|
Moving goods
|
|
January
|
Retail
|
Moving goods
|
|
February
|
Warehouses
|
Moving goods
|
|
March
|
Builders merchants/ Supermarkets
|
Transport
|
The Council’s health and safety team knows for itself what it is like to undergo an inspection. It was recently audited by the Government’s Foods Standards Agency (FSA) which ensures that local authorities work to certain standards when it inspects properties.
After implementing improvements Great Yarmouth Borough Council was given a clean bill of health by the FSA on all aspects of its work, including a restructuring of the department which has allowed it to catch-up on a backlog of premises inspections.
For further information call Commercial Manager Derryth Wright on 01493 846547.Issued by:
Liz Dann
Press Officer
Great Yarmouth Borough Council
01493 846513