[Councillor Andy Neal joined the meeting at
4.29pm during the consideration of this item].
The Sub-Committee received a presentation
provided by the Health and Safety Manager, which covered the
following areas:
-
Introduction
-
Health and safety statistics
-
Legislation updates and other news
-
Training.
Introduction:
This set out the purpose of the Health and
Safety Sub-Committee and its role.
Health and safety statistics:
The presentation provided statistics relating
to accidents/incidents involving West Suffolk Council employees and
members of the public from April 2023 to July 2023.
The Health and Safety Manager drew relevant
issues to the attention of the Sub-Committee, including providing
details of the types and locations of accidents/incidents for
employees; public and contractors during the reporting
period. He then reported the number of
days lost due to workplace accidents/incidents and compared them
with statistics from the past three-years.
Legislation updates:
The Health and Safety Manager advised that the
Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 received Royal
Assent on 29 June 2023. The Act would
automatically revoke or “sunset” a list of around 600
Retained EU Laws by the end of 2023.
However, there were a few pieces of legislation relating to health
and safety in civil aviation; maritime; nuclear industry and
football matches but nothing relation to mainstream health and
safety. There was currently no
immediate impact on the council regarding the future of health and
safety law.
The Health and Safety Manager reported the
council was compliant with all changes relating to the Building
Safety Act 2022 (Section 156).
Also on 1 October 2023, new fire safety
legislation in addition to the Fire Safety (England) Regulations
2022 and Fire Safety Act 2021 was introduced. The new fire safety legislation applied to:
-
All non-domestic premises and non-domestic parts of multi-occupied
residential buildings, for example communal corridors, stairways
and plant rooms.
-
Responsible person must record their fire risk assessment and fire
safety arrangements for their premises.
-
Responsible persons must co-operate/co-ordinate with other
responsible persons in shared buildings.
-
FRA’s appointed by responsible person must be suitably
trained and competent.
The council was complaint with the new changes
to fire legislation.
Other news:
-
Work related fatality figures for 2022 to 2023 had recently been
published. The three most common causes
of fatal injuries to workers were:
o
Falls from heights (40)
o
Being stuck by a moving object (29)
o
Being stuck by a moving vehicle (20).
The highest number
of deaths were found to be in the construction
industry.
-
Following the coroner’s report over the missing Airman Corrie
McKeague, the LGA had reminded local authorities of the guidance
provided by the Waste Industry Safety and Health forum on managing
access to large waste and recycling bins. As a reaction to this the Operations Team had
recently communicated a “look before you lift”
procedure to all its operators.
-
RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete): Recent concerns of
RAAC failing in school and NHS buildings had highlighted the
likelihood of RAAC having ...
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