Lawford Kidd's Blog

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill received Royal Assent recently. The Act contains reforms relating to a wide variety of areas, including changes to employment law, health and safety rules and copyright regulation.

The Bill, which was introduced to the House of Commons on 23rd May 2012, has attracted a considerable amount of controversy during its passage through the House of Commons and House of Lords.

Bad news for injury at work victims

New regulations to control the risks posed by needles and other 'sharps' in healthcare came into effect this month.

The Health and Safety (Sharp Instruments in Healthcare) Regulations came into force on 11th May 2013. Northern Ireland introduced equivalent regulations on the same date.

The Health and Safety Executive introduced the new regulations to implement a European Directive. They supplement the existing health and safety legislation that already requires employers across all sectors to take effective action to control the risk from sharps injuries.

A chemical firm has been fined £120,000 after an employee sustained severe burns when he was engulfed by a fireball at a factory in Wirral.

The 45-year-old was kept in an induced coma for seven weeks following a chemical explosion at the plant on 28th February last year.

The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following an investigation into the incident, which left the employee with burns to his face, right arm and upper body.

While the number of fatal injuries in the workplace has fallen slightly, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is still being called upon to investigate a disturbing number of cases in which an employee has died.

The figures indicate that employers are still not doing enough to ensure the safety of their workers, and workers are continuing to pay for these failings with their lives.

Fatal injury rate

The latest edition of the TUC's safety publication 'Hazards at Work' has been published amid growing concerns over cuts to workplace safety inspections.

The guide, now in its 30th year, warns of a 'hostile' political climate to health and safety that has resulted in the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) being prevented from making proactive visits to many workplaces to check that employers are working in ways that don't put their staff at risk.

The government has cut the HSE budget by 35%, and local authority safety inspection teams are also working with substantially reduced funding, at a time when the UK's safety record appears to be getting worse.