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Health & Safety spotlight on UK building sites
23/08/2011 17:23:09
Article appeared in Master Builder June 2011
Lessons learnt on building sites all over the country are being incorporated into specialist software developed to ensure builders don’t fall foul of ever increasing health and safety regulation.
HBXL is the leading software provider to the build sector and is currently updating the fourth edition of its successful Health & Safety Xpert programme in consultation with leading safety expert, David Price.
David Price said “By constantly monitoring developments on sites across the country HBXL is able to update its software every three months to help builders keep abreast of health and safety requirements. Anything we can learn from an incident – good or bad and we will pick up on it.”
CONSEQUENCES OF FAILING TO COMPLY
The importance of up-to-date health and safety procedures was highlighted earlier this year by the prosecution of a Gloucestershire company (see previous page) following the death of a young geologist while working on a site in the county in September 2008 when a trench collapsed at a development site he was working on in Brimscombe, near Stroud.
As a result of the case brought by the Crown Prosecution Service, Cotswold Geotechnic Holdings became the first company to be convicted of the new offence of Corporate Manslaughter. The company was fined a total of £385,000 in February this year.
David Price said the case illustrated the importance of builders large and small maintaining and observing comprehensive health and safety procedures – and the consequences of failing to comply with the regulations. He said: “As well as being a tragedy for the young man’s family, this incident has enormous implications for building companies across the country.
“There are specific health and safety requirements regarding working around excavations or trenches. During the court case it became apparent the company’s health and safety procedures were seriously out of date. It is yet another example of why the Health and Safety Executive stresses the importance of considering low-probability/high consequence risks”
IDENTIFY RISK
HBXL’s health and safety software has a built-in knowledge base which determines the likely tasks and risks involved on site and generates all the necessary paperwork for any job which ensures that building firms are kept up to speed on ever-changing legislation. It helps builders identify and assess these risks and provides on-site support to help avoid this sort of tragedy happening again.”
David Price said: “The construction industry is under close scrutiny due to the nature of the work involved and investing in software such as this could assist builders with identifying potential safety risks on a job. It will provide the necessary paperwork to perform those checks and become compliant. “This tragic incident demonstrates that as well as ending in disaster, non-compliance with the law can also mean massive fines. It could also mean site shut downs, or even prison sentences. Health and Safety Xpert cuts down dramatically the time it normally takes to produce health and safety paperwork by hand and can also help small businesses produce CHAS (The Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) compatible documents.”
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