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Don’t forget about the HSE inspections on exposure to welding fumes possibly coming to you!
In February 2019, an alert was issued to industry by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) informing on new control expectations for exposure to welding fumes, including fumes from mild steel welding. This was due to new evidence showing that exposure to mild steel welding fumes can cause lung cancer and possibly kidney cancer.
In light of this, the HSE revised its guidance on their website and updated their pages on how to manage exposure to welding fumes.
Between January and March 2020 the HSE will be visiting businesses to check compliance with the revised guidance. So expect and prepare for a possible visit.
How should you prepare?
If you are an employer you should know the risks, work plan and controls in place to ensure the health and safety of workers. You should also know what to do to make sure your business complies with the law and these enforcement changes.
Check that a risk assessment has been conducted that looks at the physical work environment, equipment and materials being used, and how the work tasks will be performed.
Check when the risk assessment was last reviewed. Have there been any changes since the risk assessment was carried out? If so, have you updated your risk assessment?
Do you control the risks identified by applying the hierarchy of controls?
For more information on each of the preparations above, the HSE have put newly revised welding advice on their website here.
New ecodesign laws aim to break away from the consumer society we have found ourselves living in.
These new laws now require electricity consuming products to be easier to repair or recycle, as well as being more energy efficient.
Currently the ecodesign of products has mainly focused on the product using less energy and being more efficient, these new laws focus on the longevity and reusability of products.
By April 2021 any electrical product sold within the EU market, be it TV’s, washing machines, freezers, screens or lighting products, will have to meet minimum repairability requirements.
The change is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions generated by product manufacturing, waste disposal and inefficient products, in turn saving everyone money by extending the lifetime of products. When added, these energy efficiency requirements with ecodesign measures will save around 5% of the EU’s electricity consumption and reduce energy bills by £22 billion.
Will your products be compliant by April 2021?
Initially you will have to comply with the The Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/2617) as amended.
Companies will have to make available spare parts to independent professional repairers for up to 10 years after the purchase date. These parts will also need to be replaceable using common tools, without damaging the product.
For manufacturers of electrical products, a process of inspection and analysis will need to take place. Identifying if the product is compliant with the new ecodesign rules will be key.
If any part is not compliant, it may be worth putting them through a redesign process to make them easily repairable with tools readily available for customers.
Instructions will need to be provided for the customer, which are simple to understand and implement.
The safety of the customer also needs to be considered. Since customers are likely to be repairing products, additional safety mechanisms may need to be designed into the product.
Don’t be caught out at the final stage by these new laws, it could be very costly. Plan, prepare and be proactive throughout every stage of the manufacturing process for a successful complaint and ecodesigned product.
The UK Government has issued a guidance page on how to comply with fluorinated gas (F gas) and ozone-depleting substances (ODS) Regulations from the 1st January 2021.
As it stands, the guidance page reminds businesses of their duties on when to report F-gas activities and ODS activities. Although the UK has left the EU, reporting requirements have not changed and will continue as normal during the transition period.
The guidance page will be updated in the forthcoming months,this will provide more information on reporting F-gas and ODS activities. When this information becomes available, we will send out an update on what the new changes are.
Below you will find a reminder of your reporting requirements for F-gas and ODS.
Reporting your F-gas activity
You must report your F-gas activities each year if you:
Reporting your ODS activities
You must report your ODS activities if you:
It is important to report your F-gas activities and ODS activities that occurred from 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020, to the European Commission by the 31st March 2021.
If your organisation is affected by F-gases or ODS, it is recommended that you review and update compliance comments against the following to ensure you remain compliant and fulfill your duties:
England, Scotland, Wales
Northern Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Jurisdiction: UK
Commencement: 31st January 2020
Amends: European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (2018 c.16)
The principal purpose of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (2018 c.16) is to ensure that the UK has a functioning statute book on the day it leaves the EU. As a general rule, the same rules and laws will apply on the day after exit as on the day before. The Act does not aim to make major changes to policy or establish new legal frameworks in the UK beyond those which are required to ensure that the law continues to function properly from exit day.
These Regulations bring into force many of the provisions of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (the ‘2020 Act’), giving effect to international obligations contained in the draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
Paragraph 1(1) and (2) of Schedule 5 of the 2020 Act (which extends provisions of subordinate legislation to come into force immediately before, on or after ‘IP completion day’*) is brought into force immediately before the 31st of January 2020 (exit day). The rest of the provisions brought into force by this act (Paragraph 4) are done so immediately after exit day.
*IP completion day is on the 31st of December 2020.
A homeowner who intentionally damaged a 90-year-old tree has been fined over £60,000.
Homeowner, Mr Lawrence pleaded guilty to killing a protected cedar tree in a conservation area to the front of his property. He intentionally stripped the lower trunk of the tree, then drilled multiple holes into the trunk to bleed the sap.
Mr Lawrence had received visits and letters from the council following the initial damage, but he willingly continued to carry out activities to harm the tree. Consequently, he was found to be in breach of legislation against protected trees.
Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 and The Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006, it is an offence to cut down, uproot, top or lop a tree that is protected and under The Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012, The Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation Order and Trees in Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Regulations 2010 and The Town and Country Planning (Trees) Regulations 1999 for Wales, it is an offence to carry out activities that are prohibited once a Tree Preservation Order is confirmed and put in place.
When the damage was first discovered the tree could have been saved through remedial works, but further attacks by Mr Lawrence made its survival impossible.
Initially, Mr Lawrence was fined £90,000, this was reduced to £60,000 with costs of £1,004 alongside a victim surcharge of £32.
The significant fine is partly based on an assessment of the tree’s value of £48,000 – both monetarily and in terms of value to the community and environment.
This prosecution and fine highlights the need to identify and ensure the protection of trees subject to a preservation order. If you have made the assumption that there are no protected trees on your site, or you know this legislation applies, it may be time to review your legal register to ensure you are in compliance with the regulations rather than take the risk of incurring a hefty fine.
Jurisdiction: UK
Commencement: 31st January 2020
Amends: European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (2018 c.16)
These Regulations bring into force provisions of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c.16) (“2018 Act”) with Section 7(1) & (6), Section 23(5) and paragraphs 7, 8, 10 and 12 of Schedule 8 coming into force on ‘exit day’.*
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (Commencement and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2018 is also amended so that Section 23(8) and Schedule 9 of the 2018 Act, which were previously going to come into effect on ‘exit day’, now come into effect on ‘IP completion day’.*
*IP completion day is on the 31st of December 2020.
*Exit day is on the 31st of January 2020.
Jurisdiction: England, Wales, Scotland
Commencement: 2nd March 2020
Amends: The Mines Regulations 2014
The Mines Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/3248) consolidate the law in relation to health and safety in mines and also implements Directive 1992/104/EEC on the protection of workers in surface and underground mineral extracting industries.
Adjustments are made to the Mines Regulations 2014 (‘the 2014 Regulations’), to implement new European limit values for respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust below ground level in coal mines.
The workplace exposure limit (WEL) for RCS dust under The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002, is now set at 0.1mg/m3. This limit now applies to coal mines below ground level, removing the previous WEL of up to 0.3mg/m3.
All references to RCS dust are removed as the need for remedial action will no longer be required under the new limits.
Jurisdiction: UK
Commencement: 31st January 2020
Amends: The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/3038) as amended
The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/3038) as amended complete the UK’s transposition of European Directive 2009/29/EC which amended Directive 2003/87/EC (‘the EU ETS Directive’), to improve and extend the Greenhouse Gas emission allowance trading scheme. The Regulations consolidate and replace a number of legislations that has transposed the EU ETS Directive into UK law.
Various minor corrections are made following technical errors in the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2019 ( the “previous amendment”) These include:
The commencement date of various regulations of the previous amendment are brought forward to 1st February 2020. This is to ensure the necessary provisions are brought into force before 1st January 2021, when the remainder of that amendment comes into force, to ensure the legislation can continue to function during any implementation period following the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Directive 2004/87/EC establishing a system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Union will be revoked when it no longer applies to the UK, presumably after the transition period.
This amendment does not change any duties for businesses.
A report recently published by Thames Water states almost three quarters of companies in the water sector, routinely monitor their workforce’s wellbeing.
A 2017 independent review found that a whopping cost of £42billion to employers and £99billion to the UK economy was annually accumulated from poor mental health. In reaction to this, a framework was launched to improve workplace mental health, regardless of industry or size.
Six core mental health standards were established for employers as well as strengthened standards for larger employers.
The utilities sector first took hold of these standards in 2019 employing a benchmarking exercise, with aims to assess mental health provisions across the water industry. The following results were collected:
What can you do?
The Thriving at Work Report highly recommends that every business implement 6 core standards to improve the health and wellbeing of their organisation and reduce days lost due to poor mental health in the workplace.
To see the full Thriving at Work Report click here.
Sustainability is an increasing concern for businesses in every sector, clearly shown by the 48% increase in investment within the green economy.
Interesting trends came out of the data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which indicated a large increase in turnover from the UK’s low-carbon and renewable energy economy, from the £40.4 billion recorded in 2015 to £46.7 billion in 2018.
The major trend highlighted from this report was the fact that the energy efficient products sector remained the largest sector of the green economy in 2018, accounting for 36% £16.7 billion – of turnover and 51% of full-time employment in the UK.
Are you taking advantage of the energy efficiency available?
This boost in energy efficient products means there are now great new ways to reduce your energy consumption while saving money. There are lots of improvements that can be easily implemented within the workplace, including installation of energy efficient doors and windows, loft and cavity insulation or even solar panels. You and your business may decide to take further steps and consider implementing net zero carbon targets, assisting the UK in its aim to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
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