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March/April 2023 issue

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News

OSHCR needs reform, says outgoing HSE chair

Open-access content Monday 25th April 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

"I have my doubts as to whether OSHCR in its current form can deliver," she said. "We would probably be better off to have a much more radical rethink and look more closely at when expertise is needed and how that's defined."

OSHCR was set up by the HSE in 2011 after the government report Common Sense, Common Safety, by Lord Young noted the lack of an accreditation scheme for OSH consultants.

At the launch in 2011, Hackitt said the register would provide "an independent way of demonstrating professional competence in occupational health and safety consultancy and should also encourage those who have not yet met these standards to do so."

However, in an interview with IOSH Magazine shortly before she left her post in early April, Hackitt said: "I don't think it has done what it set out to do at all."
The register did not filter out poor general OSH consultants.

"The good ones listen to what their customers want and provide proportionate solutions," she said. "The not-so-good ones impose and sell through fear. [They say] 'you must do this or you will be locked up' or whatever."

Hackitt said there was a role for specialist consultants such as occupational hygienists, but she questioned whether generalist consultants were needed. "My first preference would be for the business to deal with the risks themselves," she said.

Registration with OSHCR is voluntary and the register currently has details of 1,778 consultants. It is open to individuals who have achieved chartered member status with IOSH, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health or the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland. Fellows of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management with degree-level qualifications and members of the British Occupational Hygiene Society and Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors also qualify.

Applicants are asked to commit themselves to continuing professional development, have professional indemnity insurance, and provide proportionate advice.

"There are many good consultants out there but unfortunately we only seem to hear about the bad ones," said Craig Foyle, chair of the IOSH consultancy group. "The consultancy group is working closely with the IOSH representative on the OSHCR board and has also raised concerns over the effectiveness of the scheme. In addition the group is also trying to raise the profile of what good consultancy looks like."

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 Jury reach decision on unlawful killing at Hillsborough

Monday 25th April 2016
Ninety-six Liverpool fans lost their lives when they were crushed in the terrace during an FA cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground on 15 April 1989.The nine person jury have been deliberating since 6 April after listening to evidence for two years. The hearing make up has been the longest running inquest in British legal history.The conclusions will be formally returned at 11:00BST on Today.Chief superintendent David Duckenfield was in overall charge of the police operation on the day.
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 Hillsborough inquest jury finds 96 victims were unlawfully killed

Tuesday 26th April 2016
Liverpool FC fans were crushed on a terrace during an FA cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground on 15 April 1989.Overcrowding in the enclosures that subdivided the stadium’s Leppings Lane terrace was compounded by failure to restrict entry into the pens after spectators began to be crushed.
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 Alton Towers admits liability for coaster crash

Friday 22nd April 2016
An empty carriage hit another with six riders on 2 June. Two people had their legs amputated, and three others suffered life changing injuries following a collision between two carriages on the Smiler roller coaster ride.The guilty plea was heard at North Staffordshire Justice Centre today (Friday 22 April), where the company was alleged to have breached section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.After it crashed, passengers were suspended 7 m above the ground and had to be freed by emergency workers
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 Blacklisted workers accept compensation from firms

Tuesday 3rd May 2016
Legal action was launched when it was revealed that the contractors including Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci had funded a secret system to blacklist workers. The database contained details of workers’ trade union activities and past employment conduct; some were cited for voicing concerns about health and safety while on sites.
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 Trade Union Bill receives Royal Assent with govt concessions on facility time

Thursday 5th May 2016
The Bill, now the Trade Union Act, includes government concessions on ministers’ power to limit public sector trade unions representatives’ time off for duties including safety and health monitoring.The House of Lords had previously passed an amendment to delete Clause 13 of the Bill and thus remove ministers’ power to impose a cap on union reps’ facilities time.
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 Unite secure £4m for remaining blacklisted workers

Monday 9th May 2016
Legal action was taken against 30 construction contractors who had funded a secret database to blacklist workers. The database, collated by the Consulting Association (TCA), contained details of workers’ trade union activities and past employment conduct, including those who had raised health and safety issues.Last week the UCATT and GMB unions and solicitors GCR announced that they had reached an out of court settlement for their affected members.
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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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 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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