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

School/Section Safety Officers

Lab safety Monitors

Managers/PIs/ Snr Academics

Registrar

Council

Head of School/Service

n

University Safety Officer

Individuals

Responsibility

Advice

Information

Safety Committee

Safety Responsibilities

• 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/safety-management/esm/effective-safety.aspx

Risk Assessment

• 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– Substances [ e.g.chemicals, biological material]

– Equipment– Manual handling– Cylinders– Cryogenics

• DSE• Lone working

Training & Competence

• 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

• 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 – 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