The next step

Machinery maintenance risk assessment

[Risk Assessment]

http www hse gov uk safemaintenance index htm

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European safety week 2010 - maintenance

Announcement. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has just announced that its focus for 2010/11 is safe maintenance (see The next step). Last year its focus was risk assessment.

What will happen? Although we expect many of our European neighbours to do almost nothing about this, as usual it’s different in the UK. The HSE has already created a new website and is planning to send inspectors out to promote it (see The next step).

Tip 1. Although the prime aim of this campaign is to improve awareness and encourage businesses to adopt a more structured and safe approach to maintenance, you can expect enforcement action to be taken on the back of this campaign. Inspections will start in October and run until the end of November.

Tip 2. Because of the risks involved with maintenance, especially from machinery, it’s vital that you have risk assessments in place which cover the work (see The next step).

For a weblink to the HSE’s new site (HS 08.21.08A) and for a free sample machinery maintenance risk assessment (HS 08.21.08B), visit http://healthandsafety.indicator.co.uk.