As a SHEQ Coordinator, it’s vital to keep abreast of corporate, regulatory and legislative changes including, general updates related to Health & Safety, Environmental and Quality issues.

This blog piece looks at some of the recent changes you might need to consider as we begin the new year.

Safety

Working at Height

Falls from height continue to be the biggest overall cause of death in the workplace. The latest HSE statistics for 2018/19 reveal 40 deaths from such accidents.

This means it remains as vital as ever for employers to develop best practices to ensure the safety of their workforce and others who may be affected by their business.

The Construction Industry Advisory Council has released a new guide on Work at Height which could be useful. The guide aims to convey essential messages on general work at height rather than specific tasks and is designed to help anyone to produce, or check most types of output that’s looking to support safe work at height.

 Health

Occupational Health and Well-being in the Workplace

Occupational health and well-being have risen in importance over the last decade. In 2020 most businesses consider this an equal if not greater challenge for businesses than workplace safety.

New research by consultancy firm Deloitte suggests that poor mental health cost UK bosses more than £43 billion in 2018 – a 16% increase since the last estimate of £37 billion in 2016. With…

“Over 11 million days are lost at work a year because of stress at work. Employers have legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it.” HSE

There are many ways in which businesses are moving their internal policies forward, from implementing private health care schemes like we offer at TesTex, introducing free fruit for staff to eat and training staff in mental health awareness.

Occupational health and well-being will continue to be a priority here at TesTex in 2020 and we will continue to make positive steps towards a healthier, happier workforce.

Environment

Resources and waste management

We’d like to remind customers and affiliates that as part of the environment bill, the ban on plastic straws, stirrers and plastic stemmed cotton buds comes into effect as of April 2020.

The Bill also takes steps to crack down on illegal waste activities, with measures to ensure all businesses are adopting legitimate waste management practices and plans to introduce producer responsibility obligations on waste prevention and redistribution.

In addition Jan 2020 has seen a new task force launched, dedicated to tackling serious and organised waste crime, such as dumping hazardous materials on private land and falsely labelling waste so it can be exported abroad to unsuspecting countries and an update to the Waste operations and installations: assessing and scoring environmental permit compliance paper.

 Summary

At TesTex attaining high health and safety, environmental and quality standards is an integral part of what we do. We strive to deliver a high-quality service to customers and to ‘never stand still’. As such, continually invest in people and technology to create a positive working environment where we share best practice and are proud members of several regulatory bodies including UKAS and IOSH.

For more information on the standards we’ve currently achieved please view our accreditation’s.

Written by Lynne Adamson – SHEQ Co-ordinator, TesTex NDT