Health and Safety is important to us all...
Manual Handling is a major contribution to accident and injuries. This is where Specialist Lifting Solutions Service are a major force in reducing these statistics. We can provide risk assessments method statements and task specific risk assessments for all work carried out. Take a look at our website to see the different items, methods and obstacles we can overcome to reduce any Health and Safety issues. Call Now: 01285 741 150
Your Obligations and the Law
Every employer has a statutory duty of care to its employees and the law is clear as to the responsibilities of both employers and employees in respect of the health and safety of workers as well as to the penalties available should they not be met.
In 2006/7 HSE issued 8071 enforcement notices and prosecuted 1141 offences, both substantial increases on the previous year. Over 840 cases led to convictions with an average penalty of £15,370. Several fines well in excess of £100,000 were issued and several high profile cases received considerable media coverage.
Amongst local authorities, the most recent data from 2005/6 indicates that whilst the number of prosecutions for health and safety-related offences fell, a conviction rate of 96% was the highest for ten years.
Key pieces of legislation affecting any workplace in which goods or materials are handled by the use of mechanical aids include:
Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER)
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg290.pdf
Lifting equipment includes any equipment used at work to lift or lower loads and includes attachments used for anchoring, fixing or supporting them. It includes cranes, fork lift trucks, lifts and hoists.
These regulations require this equipment to be strong and stable enough for the particular use and marked with safe working loads, positioned and installed to minimise any risks and to be used safely in that the work is planned, organised and carried out by ‘competent people. Equipment must also be subject to ongoing thorough examination and, where appropriate, inspection by ‘competent people’ and records kept.
Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER)
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg291.pdf
These require equipment to be suitable for the intended use, safe for use and correctly maintained as such and, where applicable, inspected and records kept. Equipment should be provided with suitable safety measures such as protective devices, markings and warnings and should be operated only by people who have received ‘adequate and appropriate information, instruction and training’.
Although your employees do not have duties under LOLER and PUWER, they do have general duties under both the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requiring them to take reasonable care of themselves and others who may be affected by their actions and to co-operate with others.
It is worth noting that the regulations apply to anywhere that the HSW Act applies including shops, offices, hotels and places of entertainment as well as factories, warehouses and other industrial premises.
Both employers and employees are subject to the Materials Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended 2002) and these apply to a wide range of manual handling activities, including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying whether or not carried out using ‘equipment’.
With more than a third of all over-three-day injuries reported each year to HSE and local authorities being caused by manual handling - the transporting or supporting of loads by hand or by bodily force - this guidance gives useful, practical advice for employers, managers, safety representatives and individual employees on how to reduce the risk of injury from manual handling.
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Lift and Shift Uk are materials handling specialists'
We provide our services in the following locations; Swindon, Cirencester, Stroud, Tetbury, Nailsworth, Malmesbury, Oxford, Cheltenham, Bristol, Chippenham, Hereford, Birmingham, London, Cardiff, Worcester, Newbury, Wiltshire, Somerset, Bath, Corsham, Trowbridge, Gloucester, Coventry, Surrey, Wokingham, Solihull, Reading, Guildford, Yate, Devises, Maidenhead, Uxbridge, Fichley, Croydon, Buckinghamshire.
