All sectors of industry are being urged to play their part in sharing information to prevent accidents.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has revamped its Safety Bulletin system which warns industry of problems with equipment, process, procedures and substances that may lead to injury, with bulletins now available automatically via email, text message or RSS feed, as well as on the website.
HSE is now calling on industry to commit to sharing such information more effectively when sending out their own alerts.
HSE recently held a workshop, 'Safety Alerts: Everyone has a role to play - what's yours?', to demonstrate the benefits of its new system and to encourage industry to do more to help improve the safety alert system as a whole.
Participants committed to actions including; reviewing the format and method of issuing alerts; sharing alert information with other industries; and setting up forums to share best practice. In return, HSE pledged ongoing support to industry to help organisations progress with their commitments.
HSE Chair, Judith Hackitt said:
"With this new and updated way of issuing safety alerts, we are initiating a better, joined up approach to sharing information that will help towards reducing death and injury at work. HSE is keen to move with the times and take advantage of new ways of communicating.
"We are encouraged by the positive response we have already seen from a number of sectors, but we need to get all areas involved to maximise the benefits of this approach. I am confident that British industry will rise to the challenge of protecting workers through this new system."
Notes
1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is
2. If you would like further information on Safety Bulletins, visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins
3. HSE Safety Bulletins are released to keep industry up to date with failures in equipment, process, procedures and substances used in the workplace, and are gathered from investigations, inspections, research, advice from industry and the EU Commission.
4. They are released when:
- HSE needs to reach a wide range of dutyholders
- There is a new threat to health and safety
- A serious risk is not properly controlled by a number of dutyholders, or
- Protection against a major hazard incident has been found to be ineffective
5. There are three types of bulletin:
- Alert - immediate and crucial
- Notice - not immediate but within a defined timescale
- Other information - any other information that HSE comes across through its normal activities that needs to be passed on either to a wide audience, or to a specific group or sector of industry
Source
Health and Safety Executive