Employment Minister Chris Grayling announced in
March that leading risk management specialist Professor Ragnar E
Löfstedt would chair a review of all health and safety regulation,
with a view to simplifying the rules and easing the unnecessary
burdens on business.Work at height continues
to be the biggest cause of injury and accidents in the workplace and
therefore the review of any health and safety legislation is of the
utmost interest to the Access Industry Forum (AIF).
AIF Chairman Peter Bennett and AIF Director Neil
Tomlinson held an hour long meeting at Westminster with Professor
Löfstedt in July to explain the position with regards to the primary
legislation that affects the work at height industry.
Sometime was spent discussing the Work at Height 2005
and the Construction Design & Management 2007 regulations but the AIF
spelt out that there is currently insufficient industry reporting from
these two items of legislation to factually determine their
effectiveness.
The biggest challenges since the introduction of
these two pieces of legislation has been ensuring that duty holders
are informed correctly to ensure accurate compliance.
The Professor was keen to see factual evidence to
supplement his review and the AIF supplied a detailed submission on
the activity of not only the AIF, but also its respective members with
regards to the continuing relentless efforts made to reduce accidents
and incidents when working at height.
Speaking
after the meeting Neil Tomlinson commented
"It was reassuring to know that this review will
be based on factual information. The Professor was receptive and
supportive to our views in a number of areas that were discussed, and
was notably impressed by the level of activity undertaken by the AIF
and its members"
The review is being carried out in consultation with
‘professional health and safety bodies’ and includes the Access
Industry Forum who's membership consists of the nine leading trade
bodies (accounting for over 900 specialist organisations and
many thousands of trained operatives, in the UK) specialising in the
work at height sector.
Following the meeting a
formal statement from the AIF was sent to the Professor.
Click here to view the statement.
July
2011
