Whilst planning and doing Health and Safety work is obviously important, it is equally important to feedback on your activities and outcomes. This allows the progress that all enforcing authorities are making towards the Health and Safety objectives to be monitored (and where necessary, refocused and /or be better supported). It also provides invaluable evidence to inform Ministers and Government organisations e.g. Better Regulation Executive and the Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) on the achievements of the LA/HSE partnership in delivering the Strategy.
The information that is contained within the above documents flows directly from the information on the LAE1 returns. The information provided through the returns also has an influence on the work of the Health and Safety Executive Board. It informs the Board about Health and Safety inspection and enforcement activities of Local Authorities and how effectively they perform these functions and where changes in strategy or policy might be necessary (e.g. comparison of relative visit rates compared with injury incidence for different types of businesses). The information is also used for ad-hoc requests, a more recent example, looked at the LA inspection and enforcement activity within catering, to gather evidence for the recent ‘Stop slips and trips in kitchens’ campaign. The accuracy of the data is dependant on the number of complete and timely returns from Local Authorities. Without accurate and prompt data, the benefit achieved by benchmarking your enforcement services with other similar authorities will be much reduced.
We continue to look at ways of improving enforcement data and the type of information collected. If you have any thoughts on how we might improve the system, please get in touch.
This year’s Ladder Exchange forms part of the on-going successful ‘Shattered Lives’ campaign.
Over 70 LAs are signed up to Ladder Exchange 2008 and have received additional briefing from HSE. But it is not too late to participate. ‘Ladder Exchange 2008’ will begin on 1 September and run throughout that month. However, there is some flexibility for LAs to work with existing HSE partners or their own local partners to progress this initiative beyond September.
including ladder inspections within your visits, ideally during September and take action where you see a ‘dodgy’ ladder. (The HSE Topic Inspection Pack for Falls from Height (Section 2.3.11, page 24) describes the appropriate action to take where you find a substandard/’dodgy’ ladder).
publicising the initiative through your own networks with local businesses etc e.g. local events.
We are currently working with HSE partner companies: Speedy Hire, HSS Hire and SGB Hire and Sale, and Ladderstore.com on detailed plans for the delivery of Ladder Exchange across Great Britain.
Local Authority Circulars which have passed their review date or cancellation date are being withdrawn from the website. Local Authorities and HSE enforcement officers may view archived LACs on HELex under Guidance and Procedures on the HSE extranet site (login required). The current information should be available through more recent pages or in other documents on the website if you search using key words. When guidance is published you will be advised on the ‘What's New’ pages of the website.