Frequently asked questions

Health & Safety Xpert is incredibly easy and produces comprehensive documentation to help your company meet the requirements of UK Health and Safety legislation. Simply confirm details about the job and the key individuals in the project and let the software produce the paperwork for you! You can then check through the system’s suggestions, customise the documents to your own requirements and print the ones you want. 

Plus, if you use EstimatorXpress for your estimating, you can import jobs directly into Health & Safety Xpert and the software will automatically detect what documentation you may require making it even quicker! 

Developed in partnership with leading industry health and safety professionals, Health & Safety Xpert software by HBXL will save you massive amounts of time producing paperwork legally required under current UK law as well as helping you avoid accidents or near misses by taking a more active, preventative approach to health and safety on site through the automatic production of checklists and registers including training records, equipment inspections, site inspections as well as internal health and safety audits.

All building firms - no matter how small - must comply with health and safety regulations. Health & Safety Xpert is suitable for builders, developers, architects and contractors of almost all types of construction work.

Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM) regulations apply to most common building, civil engineering and construction work including all demolition and dismantling work. They do not cover house occupiers carrying out work on domestic properties or instructing an architect or other professional.

HOW DOES CDM APPLY TO YOU?

• Part 1 is an introduction to the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.

• Part 2 covers general management duties which apply to all construction projects.

• Part 3 sets out additional management duties for notifiable projects (non-domestic projects lasting more that 30 working days or more than 500 person days).

• Part 4 applies to all construction work carried out on construction sites and covers physical safeguards needed to prevent danger.

• Part 5 includes other general issues, e.g. transitional arrangements from CDM 1994 to CDM 2007.

Even small businesses have a duty of care to keep their employees and the public safe on site as well as legal requirements to undertake certain paperwork. 

For example:

• It is a legal requirement for every company to produce a Company Health & Safety Policy if you have 5 or more employees.

• It is a legal requirement if you have 4 or more people on site at one time that for you to undertake and record a Risk Assessment for the job.

• It is a legal requirement to notify the HSE of your non-domestic project on an F10 Form if it lasts more than 30 days - or more than 500 person days.

• It is a legal requirement to record accidents and incidents on site on an Accident & Incident Record.

• It is a legal requirement under CDM regulations to have an active Health & Safety Plan and that the customer should not allow your project to start without one.

• It is a legal requirement under CDM 2007 regulations for companies of all sizes to ensure the competency of the tradesmen you hire - use our Contractor Questionnaire for this.

You may not realise just how much you need health and safety software Health & Safety Xpert by HBXL, but we recommend that you read on as all businesses have a duty of care to keep their employees and the public safe on site as well as legal requirements to undertake certain paperwork. Non-compliance can attract massive fines (for all sizes of construction firms) as well as facing site shut down, criminal prosecutions and in some cases prison sentences if you are proved to be negligible. Recent examples of fines described on the HSE’s own website include a £1500 penalty for ‘inadequate management of control of traffic’ to a £25,000 fine when a joiner was injured on site ‘when a joist failed under his weight.’ Thousands of random site inspections are now being conducted by the HSE p.a. on sites of all sizes to reduce the rate of fatal and major injuries by 66% by 2009/10 so it pays to keep everyone safe on site.

Under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 non-compliance can attract site shut down, fines up to £20,000 and/or 6 months imprisonment and in certain limited cases this can be up to 2 years imprisonment.

Thousands of random site inspections are now being conducted by the HSE p.a. on sites of all sizes to reduce the rate of fatal and major injuries by 66% by 2009/10. You can be fined or charged pre-emptively if there is seen to be ‘an accident waiting to happen’ on site even if one hasn’t actually happened.

Powers of Inspectors:

Under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, inspectors have the authorization to enter premises at any reasonable time (or anytime in a dangerous situation), and to:

• Take a constable with them if necessary.

• Examine and investigate.

• Take measurements, photographs and recordings.

• Take possession of or retain anything for examination or legal proceedings.

• Require any person who can give information to answer questions and sign a statement.

• Issue an Improvement Notice, which is a notice identifying a contravention of the law and specifying a date by which the situation must be remedied.

• Issue a Prohibition Notice, which is a notice identifying and halting a situation which involves or will involve a risk of serious personal injury. A contravention need not have been committed. The notice can have immediate effect.

Offences:

Formal enforcement powers include the issue of Improvement or Prohibition notices:

• Improvement notices tell you what the problem is and require things to put right within a certain time.
  The Inspector would usually discuss the time limit with you and explain how to get it extended if there is good reason.

• Prohibition notices tell you what the problem is and require you to stop doing something until things are put right.
  These are only issued if it is considered that there is a risk of serious injury.

Notices will contain, or have attached, an explanation of what you must do to comply. You are often allowed to use a different but equally effective alternative. When notices are issued, a copy will be provided for any employees. The law requires some notices to be put in a register, which is open to public inspection. Failure to comply with a notice is a serious offence and is likely to lead to prosecution. The laws that Inspectors enforce take account of the costs of what you are required to do. This means that the action required must be in proportion to the risks concerned. If you appeal against an Improvement Notice it is suspended until the appeal is heard. A Prohibition Notice usually remains in force until the appeal is heard. An appeal form will be enclosed with either type of notice. The Inspector can also decide to prosecute any company and/or individual breaking the law. When an offence is committed by a corporate body with the knowledge, connivance or neglect by a responsible person, both that person and the body corporate are liable to prosecution.

Prosecution is more likely where there:

• is a blatant disregard for the law (particularly for economic reasons)

• is reckless disregard for the health and safety of workpeople and others

• have been repeated breaches of legislation and management is neither willing nor structured to deal adequately with these

• has been a serious accident or a case of ill-health arising from a substantial legal contravention

or where:

• a particular type of offence is prevalent in an activity or area

• a particular contravention has caused justifiable, serious public concern

Check out the full 'Guide to the Regulations'

The general duties under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 that employers have towards their employees and to members of the public can be summarised by the following: The health and safety of people at work Protection of other people affected by work activities The control of risks to health and safety from articles and substances at work The control of some atmospheric emissions The employers’ main duties are to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety and welfare at work of all their employees. The degree of risk in a particular job or workplace needs to be balanced against the time, trouble, cost and physical difficulty of taking measures to avoid or reduce the risk. In particular: The provision of safe plant and systems of work The safe use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances The provision of any required information, instruction, training and supervision A safe place of work including access and egress A safe working environment with adequate welfare facilities In addition, every employer and self-employed person is under a duty, so far as reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment (and themselves for self-employed) who may be effected, are not exposed to risks to their health & safety. This applies whether or not a person on site is treated as self-employed for tax and national insurance policies, they are nevertheless treated as an employee for health and safety purposes…

There are many regulations that apply to construction health and safety but the main regulations are: Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM) Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) 2002 Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations Act 1995.

Yes the software is a lifetime licence which means once you purchase it, it's yours forever to use on one machine. Additional licences cost just £199 ex VAT.

The Health & Safety Xpert licence only entitles you to use the package on one computer and in accordance with the Licence terms. However we do massive discounts on the purchase of additional licences for your company. Additional licences cost just £199 ex VAT.

Support & Updates for Health & Safety Xpert Updates is compulsory in year one of software ownership and covers you for 12 months worth of unlimited telephone and email technical support and all software upgrades. Support and access to software updates and upgrades can only be provided with a valid Support & Updates subscription. On the expiry of your annual Support & Updates subscription, you can choose whether you want to renew for a further year. Should you renew, you will receive a further 12 months unlimited telephone and email technical support and all software upgrades for that period.

Health & Safety Xpert is available as part of our rental plan. You can build your own rental package by selecting any two (or more) HBXL software products from ContractsXpert, EstimatorXpress, PlansXpress and Health & Safety Xpert.

Health & Safety Xpert is now tailored to cover the following topics specifically mentioned in the CHAS assessment.

• Company Policy Risk and COSHH assessments
• Accident reporting
• Assessing sub-contractor competence
• Work equipment and plant inspections
• Electrical safety
• Emergency arranements
• Manual handling
• Asbestos