The following are posts from February 2011:
21 February 2011
Network Rail will undergo a radical break-up to hand power to nine new regional operating units in a bid to force through efficiency savings worth hundreds of millions of pounds says the Construction Enquirer. Each region will be run by a separate boss responsible for delivering maintenance and infrastructure renewals. This radical change promises to be the biggest in rail infrastructure delivery...
[Read on about Network Rail Boss rolls out break-up plan]
21 February 2011
The TUC February newsletter reports that the government has been told that the UK version of a European Union-wide law on asbestos safety is illegally lax and must be amended. The UK legislation currently focuses on the measurement of exposure to asbestos and not enough on the how the material will be affected by the work itself, while the directive deals with both exposure and the material. TUC...
[Read on about UK Asbestos Law not up to EU Standard]
18 February 2011
A UK demolition firm has been fined over Asbestos say the Demolition News. The Yorkshire-based firm was the principal contractor on a demolition project and they were fined for failing to manage and monitor asbestos removal work at a site in Nottinghamshire. A number of buildings on the site contained notifiable asbestos, the removal of which should be declared to the Health and Safety Executive (...
[Read on about UK Firm Fined Over Asbestos]
18 February 2011
The TUC has stated that the way to reduce the number of people on long term sick leave is to prevent them from becoming sick in the first place. But they suggest that the cuts in the budgets of the Health and Safety Executive, and the fall in enforcement activity from local authority safety inspectors will mean more employers can get away with running unsafe and unhealthy workplaces. The TUC are...
[Read on about TUC: Government Cuts Will Affect Health, Safety & Sickness]
16 February 2011
Although CLM has been praised by Olympic chiefs for keeping costs down the Construction Enquirer reports that the CLM consortium, overseeing construction of the 2012 Olympics, has seen its fee for delivering the job rise to £718m. Some sceptics state that this fee will end up being one tenth of the project value. CLM consists of Laing O'Rourke, Mace and CH2M Hill. O'Rourke and CH2M Hill both have...
[Read on about CLM's Olympic Delivery Fee Rises to £718m]
16 February 2011
The BBC reported on February 15th that Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings has been found guilty of corporate manslaughter in the first ever conviction under the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007. This is big news as it has taken so long for anyone to be brought to justice. Perhaps now this case has come to light, with consequences, clients will take the act more seriously now. For more on this see Com...
[Read on about Geotechnical Firm Found Guilty of Corporate Manslaughter]
14 February 2011
The HSE is starting a month long blitz on the construction industry by carrying out surprise visits to hundreds of sites across the country. The inspectors will be concentrating on refurbishment, repair and maintenance sites which they say accounted for nearly three-quarter of deaths last year. For more on this see The Construction Enquirer
[Read on about HSE February Blitz - Construction Site Visits]
8 February 2011
3 February 2011
SHP reports that the consultation on amending the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) in line with the proposals made by Lord Young last year is now live. All interested parties are invited to submit their views on the proposed amendments by visiting the 'current consultations' area of the HSE website and clicking on CD233 - Proposed amendment to th...
[Read on about Have Your Say On Amending RIDDOR]
