As usual, you can find our website at www.qesconnect.co.uk. As well as details of what we can offer your business, you can find back numbers of our newsletter, and biographies of our staff. Why not take a look?

Contents:

• Benefits of a QMS

• Lifting Equipment - Inspections
• Work Related Road Safety
• Civil Liability
• Construction Safety
• Machinery Safety
• Motor Repairer's Website

• Producer Obligations

Quality Management Systems are not just about satisfying an auditor and getting a badge on the wall. A well-structured quality management system will help management to run an effective and improving business. In this newsletter, we share some of these benefits that our clients have experienced.

One example is the ability to visualise all the processes in the business. In preparing the new quality management system, we prepared process maps of the major business processes. This enabled the client to see where he could make improvements in work flow.

Another example is the requirement to manage corrective actions. The quality management system helped the client to focus on the difference between fixing the problem, and ensuring it did not happen again. In addition, the discipline of a quality management system now ensures that the actions get done, not left to chance.

Many people think that documentation is one of the downsides of a quality management system. However, several clients who use intranet sites within their businesses have integrated the quality procedures into the intranet site, and encourage all their staff to publish information in their documentation system. This helps to ensure that everyone is working from the same information, and minimises the risk that employees will not know where the quality procedures are held.

The quality management system requires that internal quality audits are carried out. With well-trained auditors from across the business, our clients find that they get benefit from the audits by allowing people who are outside an activity, but maybe feel the effects of it, to give their views on how it could be improved.

In the end, what you get out of a quality management system depends on what you are prepared to put in. But we hope that we can help you to use the quality management system to improve your business, and reap the benefits of your investment.

In the end, what you get out of a quality management system depends on what you are prepared to put in. But we hope that we can help you to use the quality management system to improve your business, and reap the benefits of your investment.

At a recent inquest into the death of a visitor to a scrap-yard, it was reported that the equipment being used to lift a scrap vehicle was in poor condition and had not been inspected as required. The obligation to have inspections carried out by a competent person comes from the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations. These inspections are often carried out by an engineer appointed by a company's insurers, but the responsibility for having inspections carried out rests with the company using the equipment.

Because an inspection was carried out last year, you should not assume that it will occur again this year. One of our clients discovered during a routine safety inspection that his lifting equipment inspection had not been carried out on the due date set by the inspector on his last visit, and so was able to take appropriate action. This highlights the need for a positive process of checking, to confirm that safety systems are being maintained, not just relying on things happening.

If you would like help with managing health and safety so that you are not caught out, contact QES Connect.

Mobile Phones for Company Drivers

It is not often that we get involved in the Road Vehicles (Construction & Use) Regulations, but an amendment to these regulations coming into force on 1st December 2003, will affect everyone who uses a mobile phone in a car. This amendment to the regulation gives effect to the well-publicised ban on drivers using hand-held mobile phones.

While this may seem at first sight to be an issue for individuals, employers also need to consider the instructions they give to their employees who drive and use phones.

• Does the employer expect the driver to keep in touch with his office, and accept calls while on the road?
• What type of phone has he been provided with?

It could there be that employers will also find themselves in the dock unless they clearly set out their policy on the use of mobile phones when driving on company business.

Need advice on safety policies? Talk to QES Connect.

Other Guidance on Work Related Road Safety

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published free guidance on work-related road safety aimed at any employer, manager or supervisor with staff who drive or ride a motorcycle or bicycle at work.

Driving at work: Managing work - related road safety has been produced in partnership with the Department for Transport and alerts employers and the self-employed to the fact that their responsibilities under current health and safety law extend to driving at work. It contains generic advice on managing work-related road safety effectively and on integrating it into existing health and safety arrangements.

Copies of 'Driving at Work: Managing work-related road safety' (HSE Ref. INDG382), are available free of charge from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA, (Tel: 01787-881165), or can be downloaded from www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg382.pdf

Changes allow Employees to sue Employers

Amendments to Management Regs and Fire Precautions Regs

A recent amendment to the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations1999 has added the right for employees to seek civil damages if they suffer illness or injury because their employer has failed to observe his duties under the regulations. This is means that even if an employer avoids a prosecution for failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment, the fact that he has breached the regulations can give rise to a civil claim by the injured employee.

The Fire Precautions Regulations have been amended in the same way, so the employer's obligation to carry out fire risk assessment is similarly emphasised.

Are you confident that your risk assessments are suitable and sufficient? If not, talk to us now about how we can help you.

A recent Health and Safety Executive (HSE) press release identified that 75% of those killed or injured in the construction industry are self-employed or work for small businesses of 15 or less employees and these small businesses make up 98% of the economically active construction industry. HSE has published a leaflet listing its "High 5" items that are priorities for attention on construction sites. They are:

HIGH 1 - Tidy sites and decent welfare

Slips and trips are the most common cause of injuries at work. Tidy sites and decent welfare are the basics of a good site.

HIGH 2 - Falls from Height

Falls from height are the biggest cause of fatal and serious injuries in construction. They account for 50% of all deaths. In 2002/03 33 construction workers died as a result of a fall from height. Many accidents involve falls from roofs, through fragile materials, from ladders and from leading edges.

HIGH 3 - Manual Handling

Manual handling injuries from working with heavy, awkward materials, often in cold and wet conditions, are one of the most common reasons why workers leave construction.

HIGH 4 - Transport

When people and vehicles collide, people come off worse - so keep them apart!

HIGH 5 - Asbestos

Many buildings in the UK contain asbestos. If you are thinking of working in a building that was built or renovated up to the 1980s, you should assume it contains asbestos until proved otherwise.

The High 5 leaflet can be obtained free from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2WA, (telephone 01787-881165).

Two recent warnings from the HSE are relevant to people in the engineering industry. One highlights the hazards associated with CNC machining centres, and the fact that parts can be ejected without warning. This emphasises the need for adequate guarding on such machines, not just to prevent the operator getting entangled in the machine, but also to protect him from flying objects. Such protection includes transparent observation windows as well as metal panels and covers.

Does your machinery meet essential safety standards? QES Connect can help you to identify what you need to do to minimise the risk of injury.

The second warning from HSE concerns the sale of used machinery, and emphasises that sellers cannot rely on the phrase "sold as seen" which is no protection from liabilities under health and safety laws.

The warning follows an HSE prosecution of both the supplier of the second-hand machinery and the buyer following an incident when an experienced machine operator sustained serious hand injuries which have left him partly disabled.

Maureen Kingman, HM Principal Inspector of HSE Manufacturing Sector commented, "Suppliers have explicit duties to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that articles for use at work will be safe at all times when being set, used, cleaned or maintained. Suppliers should safeguard second hand machines or first obtain a written undertaking from the purchaser that they will take specified steps to ensure that the article is safe. "Sold as seen" does not absolve the supplier or the buyer of their duties under the law."

The machine had been supplied "as seen, as is", having come from a previous user who had had it in storage for some years. No changes were made to the machine by the supplier before delivery and no documentation other than an invoice stating "free from any damage other than normal wear and tear" and machine manuals were provided to the user.

The supplier did not obtain any written undertaking from the user in relation to ensuring safety before use. The user carried out an extensive overhaul returning the machine to almost original condition, but making no changes to its design or safety features.

An experienced machine operator was appointed by the user to be trained on the machine by experienced members of staff with previous knowledge of the machine. When cleaning by hand with a cloth the powered rotating gravure and pressure rollers, his hand was drawn in between them, sustaining serious crush injuries.

QES Connect can provide a safety inspection system designed for your company, backed up by an auditing service that gives you the information you need to help you review your company's health and safety management performance. Why not give us a call and avoid being an HSE statistic?

WIn 2001, it was estimated that the Motor Vehicle Repair industry in the UK employed over 170,000 people in about 44,000 businesses. The industry is dominated by small and medium-sized companies with over half the workforce employed in either zero-employee enterprises e.g. sole traders or partnerships, or businesses employing less than 10 people. Companies with less than 50 employees accounted for about 80% of the workforce. Over the last 5 years there have been over 30 fatal accidents to motor vehicle repair workers and on average about 2,000 injuries per year reported to the HSE and Local Authorities

The HSE has now launched a website giving health and safety advice specifically for this industry. The information can be accessed at http://www.hse.gov.uk/mvr.

If you need guidance on implementing some of the health and safety suggestions on the website, contact QES Connect for practical advice.

The End-of-Life Vehicles Regulations come into force from the 3rd November 2003, and imposes new duties on manufacturers and dismantlers of vehicles. While this may not be relevant to many of our customers, it is worth pointing out that similar legislation is in the pipeline for electrical and electronic equipment, banning the use of certain substances and including obligations on how waste is to be treated.

While an environmental management system will not per se ensure that companies meet new legislation, it will help them to understand the environmental impact of their activities, and develop an plan to meet regulatory requirements as well as good-practice improvements.

Many large companies with environmental management systems are cascading the requirement to their suppliers and sub-contractors, who form part of the environmental impact of the large company.

Implementing an environmental management system, and getting it registered to the ISO14001 is not an impossible task for a small business, but it requires guidance from a knowledgeable consultant.

If you are thinking of implementing ISO14001, contact Chris Hamilton at QES Connect for advice and assistance.

Readers of paper copies of our last news letter will remember that we told you that we were moving. In fact, due to circumstances beyond our control, the move has not yet taken place. We can therefore still be contacted at the old address in the web site at " Who are QES Connect Ltd?". However, correspondence and telephone calls to our new address and number (as listed in new copies of Yellow pages, and on Yell.com) are being forwarded, so you can make contact either way.

Produced by QES Connect Ltd. Except where stated, the material included in the newsletter is taken from freely available public sources. It may be reproduced without permission for non-commercial purposes.