What next for health and safety? Public Meeting
What Next for Health and Safety?
Thursday 20th September 7:30pm
at Bread & Roses Clapham.
HSE Consultations so far:
- on the Tower Crane Register (crane MOT) & the Hard Hat Regulation has resulted in the HSE Board recommending that they be scrapped despite protests from ourselves, a low response and evidently a 50:50 split on the board.
- on removing/revising 15 ACOPs including the ACOP which goes with the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations (Risk Assessment, Young Workers, New or Expectant Mothers, Temporary Workers) closed on 14th September.
Closing on 28th October:
- Removing some self-employed from the scope of health & safety legislation.
- R.I.D.D.O.R: removing the requirement to report cases of occupational disease, other than those resulting from a work-related exposure to a biological agent, non-fatal accidents to people not at work, dangerous occurrences outside of higher risk sectors or activities,the reporting by self-employed persons of injuries or illness to
themselves.
Cameron’s deregulation worse than Thatchers
What is proposed goes way further than the deregulation of safety in the Thatcher years – & with the Hillsborough independent report published this week, we have just had a powerful reminder of what lax health & safety means.
- 96 killed at Hillsborough April 1989 – 41 of whom could have been saved if there was a co-ordinated emergency response
- 56 killed Bradford City Stadium fire May 1985
- 193 passengers and crew killed Herald of Free Enterprise Zeebrugge March 1987
- 31 killed Kings Cross fire November 1987
- 167 killed Piper Alpha Oil platform explosion only 61 survived July 1988
- 35 killed Clapham railway crash December 1988
- a Piper Alpha every year in construction in this period
We are going to shortly see the effects of 35% cuts to HSE budgets and further decreases in the level of inspections and to cap it all it is possible there will not be a prosecution of Falcon Cranes over the collapse at Thessaly Road 2006 – Liliana will give an update.
Directions to Bread and Roses: HERE