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May/June 2023 issue

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Safe systems of work
Construction
News

Untrained asbestos surveyor missed chrysotile and amosite

Open-access content Wednesday 6th June 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Untrained asbestos surveyor missed chrysotile and amosite

Dudley Magistrates' Court was told that Home Inspectors Southern, which carried out the survey, had failed to identify asbestos cement and insulating board containing chrysotile (white) and amosite (brown) asbestos.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the worker who carried out the survey had no training in asbestos surveying or previous experience with a qualified person or accredited organisation.

The survey incorrectly advised that a non-licensed contractor could be employed to remove the large quantities of asbestos insulating board identified.

The HSE also found that the client, Vital Property Solutions, had not asked Home Inspectors Southern for any information to prove its skills, knowledge, experience or training in asbestos surveying.

Vital Property Solutions pleaded guilty to breaching s 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £8,400. Home Inspectors Southern pleaded guilty to the same offence and was fined £4,800. Both companies must pay costs of £930.

HSE inspector Edward Fryer said: "Asbestos surveyors have a duty of care to those persons who use the information they provide. The survey missed a significant amount of asbestos contaminated materials (ACMs) thus increasing the risk to workers, who would be disturbing the fabric of the building during the refurbishment/demolition project. "The risk arises from workers unknowingly working on ACM and not taking effective precautions to prevent exposure and spread of asbestos fibers."

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 PUWER offence sees civils firm fined after worker hit by badly maintained road roller

Wednesday 6th June 2018
Newlay Civil Engineering employee Thomas Shaw was injured in November 2015 when a colleague reversed the vehicle over his leg during road resurfacing work in Straiton, South Ayrshire. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the road roller had no flashing beacon and the reversing alarm was not working. In December 2015 it served an improvement notice, which the company complied with the next month.
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 Police investigating whether LFB breached safety law over ‘stay put’ policy at Grenfell

Friday 8th June 2018
Known as the “stay put” policy, the strategy requires occupants to wait in their homes unless they are directly affected by fire or smoke.  However, chartered fire engineer and expert witness Dr Barbara Lane told the Grenfell Tower public inquiry on Monday (4 June) that although the principles of the stay put regime had “substantially failed” by 1.26am, the LBF did not abandon the policy until 2.47am – more than 80 minutes later.
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 Contractor pays £566,670 for line strike with no injury

Wednesday 30th May 2018
The driver was employed by Mick George, a company that supplies earth moving, demolition, skip hire and waste management services to the construction industry. On 9 March 2016 he was emptying a load of soil from the tipper at a construction site in Northampton.  He drove forward with the dump bed still raised and touched – or almost touched – the 33kV overhead power lines.
Open-access content

 Dumper tipped from spoil heap on to driver

Wednesday 9th May 2018
Tonic Construction employee Shaun Carter, 29, was driving his forward-tipping dumper to the top of the mound of waste soil, stone and rock when it became stuck on the edge. As Carter jumped out of the vehicle, it overturned and struck him on the head. He died at the scene from severe head injuries. According to a report by the Gazette and Herald, Carter was part of a team putting in roads, drainage and foundations on a David Wilson Homes construction site in Cirencester, Gloucester, when the accident happened in May 2016.
Open-access content
Connolly had no harness or edge protection

 Scaffolder who abused HSE inspector handed suspended sentence and tagged

Thursday 5th July 2018
Steven Connolly was erecting a two-lift scaffold on the front of a house in Kent for the installation of solar roof panels. On 19 August 2016 a HSE inspector drove past the site on her way to work when she observed Connolly working without a safety harness and with no advanced guardrails or scaffolders’ safe zone.When she instructed Connolly to work in accordance with NASC guidance SG4:15, he subjected her to a torrent of abuse.
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 CITB awards £500k to train 2,500 construction mental health first aiders

Tuesday 5th June 2018
The funding will be used by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England to train 156 fully certified construction mental health first aid instructors by September 2019. The first MHFA instructor course was held in May, with the others due to take place over the next 18 months. These instructors will each be required to deliver two of MHFA’s two-day training courses, resulting in at least 2,500 qualified mental health first aiders by 2020.
Open-access content
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