This may have a damaging impact on the management of safety
and health risks during construction projects.
Review of ISO 14001 – Environmental Management systems
The international ISO 14001 standard clarifies how to put an
effective environmental management system in place and it is
proposed to assist organisations remain commercially successful,
without ignoring critical environmental responsibilities.
All ISO standards are reviewed every five years to establish if
a revision is essential to keep them current and relevant for the
marketplace. The future environmental management system
standard, ISO 14001:2015, will respond to latest trends and ensure
it is compatible with other management system standards such
as ISO 9001 by incorporating a new High Level Structure (HLS) for
Management System Standards (MSS).
Nonetheless, from an H&S perspective, the occupational
health and safety management system standard, ISO 45001 (the
replacement for BS OHSAS 18001), is also under development with
an intended release date of October 2016.
The HLS means that both the upcoming environmental and
health and safety (EHS) standards will follow the same overall
structure. This will contain a condition to understand the
organisation’s context (e.g. the environment in which it operates,
including its supply chain and local communities) in order to
better manage risk, with more emphasis made on leaders within
organisations to promote EHS management.
H&S Sentencing Guidelines
This is really aimed at the larger organisations, where large H&S
fines do not essentially harm where there are huge turnovers and
profits. Of course, the aim should be to create a greater deterrent
for larger organisations so that they put in place good H&S
management systems.
The problem occurring is that greater punishment for failings
is not as powerful as providing rewards for doing things well.
Rewarding positive actions would be a better approach for all. For
instance, tax incentives and /or reduced insurance premiums for
demonstrating good H&S management would be novel.
In summary, Bryan Richards said that “this Government’s
intention to unravel H&S bureaucracy, could yet have a negative
impact on managing workplace health and safety risks.” Professor
Löftstedt concluded that there had been a tenfold reduction in
workplace fatality rates in the UK throughout the period of modern
H&S law over the last 40 years.
Additionally, Richards concluded that “the law has done a
good job in protecting workers and improving the UK’s workplace
H&S track record to one of the best in the world. Is that therefore
something to tinker with?” `
Original Source: http://www.hseinternational.co.uk/what-youneed-to-know-about-the-new-2015-health-and-safety-legislation/
OFFSHORE WIND
INCIDENT REPORTING
INCREASED BY 55%
A health and safety incident report
by the G9 Offshore Wind Health and
Safety Association shows the number of
reported incidents last year increased 55%
compared to 2013.
G
9 was set up in 2010 by nine offshore wind project
developers, including Danish firm Dong Energy, UK-based
Centrica and Sweden’s Vattenfall, to improve health and
safety in the offshore industry.
The group’s annual incident report shows that across 45 sites
in Europe, 959 incidents were reported in 2014, compared to 616
a year earlier. The figures were compiled in association with the
Energy Institute.
The increase is partly because more projects are involved in
the study – only 35 sites took part in 2013. But, an Ener