John and some of the delegates are pictured working in temperatures in excess of 30 C which was quite a change from our usual climate conditions.

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1 Linc 12 safe Lincsafe s Orient Express 1 Lincsafe in Singapore Always priding ourselves in being able to address client needs, Lincsafe responded to a request to design and present a two day training course on Step-changes in Construction Safety by Risk Based Design and Good Management. John and some of the delegates are pictured working in temperatures in excess of 30 C which was quite a change from our usual climate conditions. If you are interested in having a tailored training package designed, planned, and presented please call us and we will be more then happy to assist.

2 HSE PROSECUTIONS Every month we try to highlight issues sourced from different industries, below are this months selection... UPDATE Fireball engulfs two Companies must take measures to protect workers who are workers HSE s investigation into the digging into the ground, where A company and its incident found that RVB gas and electricity services may manager have been fined after Investments had not assessed be found. two workers were engulfed in a the risks involved, devised a fireball when they cut through a safe system of work or obtained They must obtain site plans live 1,000 volt electrical cable at site plans of the area, checked from service providers, use a an industrial unit in Telford. whether there were any electrical cables underground or used check what is actually under the cable avoidance tool to scan and safe digging methods. The two surface, and ensure that workers are properly trained and dig- men had also received no training about the dangers arising ging is carried out safely. from underground services. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Birmingham firm RVB Investments UK Ltd and manager Clifford Leigh following the incident on 10 August Telford Magistrates Court heard RVB Investments employees Eamonn Osborne, 53, and David Rawlins, 46, had been told to find an underground water leak at an empty industrial unit owned by the company at Halesfield 5, Telford. Mr Leigh instructed them to dig at a spot outside the unit. Using an electrical drill, they drilled nearly 40cm into the ground until they hit a live 1,000 volt cable. They were engulfed in a fireball and suffered burns to their hands, arms and faces. Both were airlifted to hospital and Mr Osborne was so seriously injured that for the first few days, doctors believed he might not survive. The court heard the estimated power of the fireball was equivalent to 4.3 million watts of energy. The heat was so intense that part of the electrical breaker s metal tool was vaporised and a 500 amp fuse was blown in a nearby electrical substation. The court also heard that in issuing instructions to the two men, Clifford Leigh had a duty to take reasonable care for their safety. Despite being aware of the guidance which details how to dig safely near underground services, he failed to ensure that proper precautions had been taken before telling them to start work. RVB Investments UK Ltd, of Hurst Street, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act The company was today fined 10,000 and ordered to pay 4,420 costs. Clifford Leigh, of Longbridge Lane, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 7(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined 2,000 and ordered to pay 1,000 costs. Speaking after the hearing, HSE principal inspector Nic Rigby said: As this case demonstrates, hitting a live electrical cable is a very real danger and can easily result in deaths or serious injuries. All employees, such as Clifford Leigh, have a responsibility to ensure that they take reasonable care for the safety of their fellow employees when making decisions about how work should be carried out. RVB Investments UK Ltd and Clifford Leigh failed to do this and as a result two men were seriously injured in an avoidable incident that could easily have been fatal. 1 1 http tp:/ /www ww.h.hse.gov.uk/ pr ess/ s/20 /c oi-w -wmm htm Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited

3 Skills card health and safety test cheats jailed Two men have been jailed for a total of 18 months for taking health and safety tests on behalf of other construction workers to gain skills cards. The case is being highlighted by CITB-ConstructionSkills who warned any other fraudsters could expect to feel the full force of the law. Gurpreet Singh and Parampreet Singh were both convicted last week after pleading guilty at Luton Crown Court. They had been caught by staff at CITB-ConstructionSkills test centre in Luton, Bedfordshire, and were sentenced to nine months each. CITB-ConstructionSkills product delivery manager Chris Little, said that staff discovered the fraud, known as proxy testing, after realising the men had taken multiple tests using several other workers identification passes which bore their own photographs. He said: Both men were being paid to take the test by other candidates, and it soon became clear to us that the same men were taking the test for other people each time. CITB-ConstructionSkills Chief Executive Mark Farrar condemned the practice. He said: I m glad the vigilance of CITB-Construction- Skills staff caught and put a stop to this illegal activity. We support the industry by continually investigating test fraud, and we take it very seriously indeed. Proxy testing is self-defeating because it both endangers the lives of the people who solicit it and their colleagues on construction sites. Those who are found to be proxy testing will be reported to the police and could face prosecution. Both men are foreign nationals and will be deported once they have served their sentences. 1 Lincsafe advise random checks are undertaken by telephoning CSCS direct on Unsafe work method led to and fell through a reg.4 of the Work at Height seven-metre plunge polycarbonate skylight. Regulations It was fined No costs are awarded in Scotland. A young worker was lucky to escape serious injury when he fell seven metres through a skylight on a warehouse roof. The 23-year-old man was helping to replace signage at the premises of Remnant Kings, a curtains and fabrics retailer in Seafield Way, Edinburgh, on 6 October An employee of Forrest Hepburn and McDonald Signs Ltd, the man was working with two colleagues to remove three signs. Sitting on 16 January, Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that fixings on the last, and largest, sign to be removed were rotten, which meant the workers normal method of breaking it into pieces to remove it was not an option. They therefore decided to access it from the roof and then lower it to the ground. Two of the men went up via a ladder, tied rope around the sign, and lowered it to the ground. As they were gathering their tools to descend, the 23-year-old worker stepped backwards while trying to catch a rope thrown to him by his colleague on the ground He landed on the floor of the shop seven metres below, having hit a water tank on a ledge on the way down. Although he suffered severe bruising, he had no broken bones. The man was treated at the scene by paramedics and was hospitalised overnight. He returned to work some weeks later. Environmental health officers from the City of Edinburgh Council investigated the incident and found that the signage company had failed to properly plan, supervise, or carry out the work properly. Scaffolding, a mobile access tower, or a mobile elevated work platform could have been used to gain safe access to the sign being replaced, they concluded. The court heard that selection of the equipment for the job at the Remnant Kings premises had been left to the common sense of the men involved in the job, as no guidance had been provided by their employer. Consequently, Forrest Hepburn and McDonald Signs Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of Since the incident, Forrest Hepburn and McDonald Signs Ltd have introduced cherry-pickers for this type of job and issued instructions to employees that, for smaller jobs, scaffolding should be used. Site surveys undertaking while pricing jobs now include a risk assessment to ensure the work can be carried out safely incourt-content/full/unsafe-work-methodled-to-seven-metre-plunge Lincsafe (Health & Safety) Limited i

4 Open Courses for 2012 UKATA Asbestos Awareness Catagory A, Refresher Training. As can be seen below, we are offering a morning and afternoon session to allow as little disruption to your working day as possible. Paragraph 147 of ACoP L143 Work with Materials Containing Asbestos states Refresher training should be given at least every year and should be appropriate to the role undertaken. Those persons who require only awareness training could have refresher training as part of other health and safety updates. Employers should identify the specific training needs of their employees so that the refresher training can be appropriately tailored. It should not be a repeat of the initial training. Thursday 1st March & Friday 9th March & Cost pp incvat & UKATA Certificate SMSTS 5 day April Sept Dec 675+VAT Per Person IOSH Managing Safely 4 Day 27, 28, June, 4,5 July 4,5,11,12 Oct SSSTS 2 day May Sept 315+VAT Per Person 475 VAT Per Person SMSTS REF 2 day May Oct 290+VAT Per Person

5 Need to Know news... EXTREME WEATHER Are you prepared? We have certainly experienced unusually severe weather over the Christmas and New Year holiday period throughout the UK, but more particularly in the north of England, Northern Ireland and in Scotland. There has been significant structural damage together with travel disruption, power cuts, flooding, and, for some when they get back to work, especially for the Construction industry at the end of the holiday period. Who knows what conditions await workpeople on site. And it seems, if the forecasters are correct, that there will be more of these intense storm periods in the future as seasonal weather patterns and climate change influences conditions. It is strongly recommended that on start back on your current project work sites that the first thing that you arrange is a full and thorough inspection and check of the workplace, work materials and work equipment to establish that it is safe for workpeople to start carrying out worktasks again. You may also have to carry out pre work stabilisation, salvage and remedial works before work proper can restart. (See considerations below They are neither exhaustive nor prioritised and there may well be other issues to consider) Firstly liase with your Client or Principal Contractor to establish what they have done or are doing in regard to ensuring the integrity of the work site and of the work in hand. Have a Team Briefing or Tool Box Talk on the topic of WEATHER and its effects on the works and on workpeople, their health and wellbeing. If your works require recovery because of storm damage etc., e.g. salvage and remedial actions, then make a full Risk Assessment and in consultation with those that will carry out the work prepare a simple Method Statement and ensure that it is communicated to all of them and issue them a copy. If the client or your specific works have special Temporary Works associated with them, then check these out, or seek guidance from the Client/PC as to usability and condition. e.g. Has the Client/PC done all that is necessary to ensure the integrity and safety of the works in progress? Inspect any craneage, especially Tower Cranes, and any jib or boom plant that was left in operational mode over the holiday. e.g. look for structural damage; possible ballast and counterbalance defects; damage or distortion of ties etc. and again with mobile cranes check out the ground conditions before set up and use, the ground may well not be as it was before the holiday period. Similarly inspect and check out MEPWS and Scissor Lifts, especially if they were left in erected and operational positions and modes. And again think, examine and prepare Ground Conditions before using them Inspect all Scaffolds, Scaffold Access Towers, Access Stair Towers, and be especially rigorous with inspections of weather/enclosure clad Scaffold structures. e.g. look at the state and condition of sheeting and of its securing, the state of any ties; check bracing; inspect handrails and edge guarding; check deck board security (wind displacement); inspect the footings and foundation areas for ground sinkage or scouring from heavy rainfall and in some cases snowy and freeze and thaw conditions. Work platforms, Access decking walkways on roofs, Fall Arrest Safety Net assemblies and ropes, Roof Edge Protection and Guard Rails, all require a thorough inspection. Physically check and inspect to ensure that storm conditions haven t damaged, moved or weakened them. Also check and inspect stored and stacked material and components. Make sure that panels and sheets, glazing units etc if stored in racks and vertically haven t moved and can t slip and slide and trap people accessing and handling them. For H&S guidance see www. hse.gov.ukyour Trade or Industry Sector representative body e.g. NFRC For Weather see: guidance/618-weather-forecast-websites.htm