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March/April 2023 issue

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Regulation/enforcement
Sector: Central government
Construction
News

Government's partial ban on combustible cladding ‘doesn’t go far enough’

Open-access content Tuesday 2nd October 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Govt's partial ban on combustible cladding 'doesn't go far enough', some say

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference at the ICC in Birmingham yesterday, housing secretary James Brokenshire said the ban will apply to high-rise residential buildings taller than 18 m, as well as schools, hospitals and care homes.

Materials with limited combustibility, such as plasterboard, and non-conbustible materials -- classified as A2 and A1 respectively under the European classification system -- would be allowed.

The move comes 15 months after the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people when it spread rapidly through the 24-storey block of flats in west London on 14 June 2017.

Brokenshire said he wanted to "bring about a change in culture on building safety" after the "unimaginable horror [of the Grenfell disaster] has shocked us all and underlined the need to do all that we can to see that such disaster cannot happen again".

However, IOSH said that while the ban "provides some clarity and simplification", it warned that it does not cover existing residential tower blocks, as well as new offices and other buildings.

Richard Jones, the institution's head of policy and public affairs, said: "Banning the use of combustible materials on new high-rise residential buildings is a step in the right direction. But it doesn't go far enough. In cities and towns across the UK, many people live and work in high-rise buildings. They all need to be protected. Therefore, the ban should cover all high-rise buildings -- existing and new -- and both residential and non-residential."

Dame Judith Hackitt, a former chair of the Health and Safety Executive and current chair of manufacturing trade body EEF, carried out the government-commissioned review of the UK's building and fire regulations after the disaster. Published in May, her final report did not recommend prohibiting combustible cladding.

Hackitt defended her decision not to advocate a ban at IOSH's annual conference in September. She said: "If we only fix the cladding issue, we could only guarantee there would not be another fire caused by cladding. Unless we fix the system we have no way of guaranteeing we couldn't have another catastrophic high-rise fire caused by something else.

"We have to get to the point where those who commission and build buildings feel as responsible for the people who occupy them as they do for those who construct them," she said.

However, shortly after the final report was published, Brokenshire issued a consultation on proposals to revise the building regulations to ban the use of combustible materials in the inner leaf, insulation and cladding used on the external walls of high-rise residential buildings.

RIBA submitted evidence to this consultation in August. It argued for an outright ban on combustible materials used in any high-rise buildings, including A2 products, and said A1 materials only, which include metal, stone and glass, should be used.

In response to yesterday's announcement on the ban, RIBA's director of professional services Adrian Dobson, said: "Toxic smoke inhalation from the burning cladding very likely contributed to the disproportionately high loss of life at the Grenfell Tower disaster. Permitting all products classified as A2 does not place any limits on toxic smoke production and flaming particles/droplets.

"In our view, this is not an adequate response to the tragic loss of life and might still put the public and the fire and rescue authorities at unnecessary risk."

Matt Wrack, general secretary at the FBU, said: "The Westminster government continues to allow cladding of limited combustibility for any building work in future [-¦] These measures do not deal with the existing cladding on nearly 500 buildings across England where people live and work every day.

"The government's proposals only apply to buildings over 18 m high, plus hospitals, care homes and student accommodation when they should apply to all buildings whatever their height or use. They continue to allow A2 materials, when they should permit only the highest standard of A1."

The ban does not apply to buildings where combustible materials have already been fitted. However, the government pledged £400m to remove and replace unsafe Grenfell-style cladding from council and housing association tower blocks in England and work began in April.

Jones added: "Existing buildings should not remain clad in combustible materials but should have improvement plans put in place. We also believe it is unacceptable to allow building work using newly-banned materials to start or continue, so the ban should apply to projects already underway."

The government is expected to respond to the recommendations in Hackitt's Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: final report this autumn.

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©High Level/REX/Shutterstock

 Government releases funding to replace Grenfell-style cladding

Tuesday 23rd October 2018
The funding is the first tranche of the £400m pledged by prime minister Theresa May earlier this year to cover the costs of removing unsafe aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding from council and housing association tower blocks after the Grenfell Tower fire. The money will be allocated to 12 local authorities and 31 housing associations, covering 135 buildings.The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has received applications for funds for 159 buildings.
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 Eni UK served notice for defective valves on Douglas Complex

Thursday 11th October 2018
The HSE investigation found 20 of the 33 safety critical isolation valves on the DA and DD platforms’ firewater ring main on Eni UK’s Douglas Complex in the Irish Sea were defective. The UK arm had already identified the issue before it received the notice and has been criticised for not fixing the valves during a previous shutdown period.
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 IOSH 2018 conference blog: Day 2

Wednesday 19th September 2018
At the start of the day, Mark Gallagher, founder and chief executive of Performance Insights, explained how the death of sporting icon Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix triggered a reappraisal of safety in Formula 1 motor racing, the lessons from which have been cascaded through motor sport and its supply chain. But Gallagher warned that the 20 years without a fatality in Formula 1 which those lessons made possible, ended with the death of Jules Bianchi in 2015.
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 IOSH 2018 conference blog: Day 1

Monday 17th September 2018
Kicking off the day at the macro level, Bernd Treichel of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) gave several hundred delegates a brief update on the Vision Zero global campaign his UN agency launched at the World Safety Congress in Singapore last year (http://visionzero.global). The initiative now has 2,000 organisations signed up, he said, and is still looking for more employers to sign up “with no strings attached” to its principles of accident prevention and enhanced training.
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 TUC calls on employers to cut diesel exhaust exposure

Thursday 25th October 2018
New guidance from the UK’s trade union body says that, by replacing workplace diesel-fuelled vehicles with ones that are powered by compressed natural gas or electricity, bosses can prevent exposure for drivers, seafarers, mechanics, construction and railway workers, and those who work underground and in warehouses.
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 IOSH 2018

Wednesday 26th September 2018
Leadership has been the dominant motif of IOSH’s annual gatherings for the past three years. While it remained an important strand at IOSH 2018, which brought 700 delegates to Birmingham’s International Convention Centre on 17 and 18 September, this year’s conference was subtitled “Shape a new world of work”.The conference’s 34 sessions were threaded through with presentations on issues such as technological and demographic change and refinements in risk control to underpin that new world theme.
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  Morrisons’ £3.5m fine is ‘a warning to all employers’, says council

Friday 24th March 2023
Morrisons supermarket has been fined £3.5 million for failing to ensure the health and safety of an epileptic employee who died after falling from a shop stairway.
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 IOSH launches new five-year strategy

Tuesday 21st March 2023
IOSH launches its new five-year strategy this spring. It will build and act on the reshaped purpose and ambition gained during WORK 2022, which ran from 2017 to 2022.
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 Risk & Compliance software provider collaborates with HSE and Costain to improve risk management on worksites

Friday 17th March 2023
A Belfast-based Risk & Compliance software provider has been collaborating with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and construction giant Costain as part of an ongoing project to unlock artificial intelligence’s (AI) potential in improving the management of risks on worksites.
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Latest from Sector: Central government

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 HSE grilled over its COVID response at Select Committee hearing

Tuesday 23rd March 2021
Unions and HSE leaders clashed over the enforcement of COVID guidance at work last week – IOSH magazine was there to report on it.
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 HSE cracks down on violence against inspectors

Friday 21st February 2020
An HSE inspector was the victim of violence and aggression while conducting an inspection at a waste and recycling site, it has been revealed.
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 New partnership to deliver industry-leading magazine and jobs site for safety and health profession

Monday 5th August 2019
 IOSH and award-winning content marketing and publishing agency Redactive today announced a new partnership to provide news, updates, insight, careers advice and job opportunities for safety and health’s largest professional community.
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 Risk & Compliance software provider collaborates with HSE and Costain to improve risk management on worksites

Friday 17th March 2023
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 Musculoskeletal disorders in construction

Thursday 2nd March 2023
Ian Whittles, an HSE construction inspector, reveals the cultural challenges in the sector, the drive behind the Work Right campaign and the musculoskeletal benefits it hopes to achieve.
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 Principal contractor handed £146k fine for fatal excavator crush goes into liquidation

Tuesday 14th February 2023
Birch Brothers (Kidderminster) Ltd was the principal contractor on a construction project in Derbyshire that was building a concrete overflow weir structure on the site. The Midlands firm had brought in steel fixers and joiners to undertake the work.
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 A reasonable balance to strike

Friday 24th March 2023
Safety interventions should be practicable and cost-effective, but too much of an imbalance towards safety does not make economic sense for employers, argues Geoff Vaughan, who suggests ‘gross disproportion’ provides a practical limit.
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 Spring budget and occupational health

Friday 17th March 2023
Richard Jones CFIOSH, comments on the occupational health aspects of the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's first budget statement.
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 Health and safety regulations at risk under draft law

Monday 13th March 2023
A proposed new law aims to revoke EU-derived legislation, including life-saving protections, by December 2023, unless specifically kept or replaced – Richard Jones CFIOSH explains how OSH practitioners can get involved.
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 Terminal cancer cases in Grenfell firefighters

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 Appeal success for food firm over ‘excessive’ fine

Tuesday 1st November 2022
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 HSE publishes revised construction fire safety guidance

Thursday 1st September 2022
The GB Health and Safety Executive has recently published a revised version of its fire safety in construction (HSG168) document. 
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