Value From Risk

Does health and safety legislation apply to me?

The Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) is the most significant piece of legislation in relation to health and safety issues. If your company has any employees, then a full health and safety evaluation needs to be conducted.

One of the many challeneges faced by businesses today is how to retain a competitive edge and ideally grow, whilst remaining compliant with health and safety legislation.  Having a well thought out and established health and safety policy isn’t just good practice, it`s essential. For small and medium-sized businesses, it can help save money and provide a firm base to drive your business forward, but do you know where to start?

All companies must carry out risk assessments, and for those with five employees or more, records must be retained and updated when necessary.  In order to build a sustainable business with the foresight to safeguard its future success, why not consider risk management at a higher level?

Pro Enviro can help your business reconcile its activities and health and safety investments in order to:

• Anticipate and control risks
• Ensure compliance with the regulations
• Achieve sustainable development
• Optimise costs and control budgets

Externally certified management systems are a recognised benchmark of high standards within a company. Having a certified management system in place shows customers and other stakeholders that the company is well-run, responsible and the provider of high quality products and/or services.

Pro Enviro has extensive experience in assisting companies to achieve registration to a range of Environmental, Quality and Health and Safety standards. Implementing a management system requires changes to be made to the way things are done and a commitment to continuous improvement within the company.

Pro Enviro`s support can be tailored to your company`s requirements; from undertaking site reviews and assessments to writing procedures, providing staff training and putting management systems on-line. We currently offer assistance in the following management systems:

Integrating Management Systems

Many companies now have multiple management systems in place. This places a high administrative burden on staff and is time consuming, as well as reducing the time available to dedicate to achieving business goals.

Pro Enviro can help you integrate your management systems to make running them less time consuming and less expensive. We can help you work towards the implementation of one overall Integrated Management System (IMS) on site that will ensure the correct management of all key aspects of existing systems, so as to enable the company to function smoothly and achieve its aims.
Benefits of an Integrated Management System

Implementation of an IMS on-site brings with it a number of benefits:

• Reduction in duplication (and therefore the cost of staff time spent running the system).
• A consistent streamlined system that is easier for employees to understand and work within.
• The opportunity to balance conflicting objectives.
• A reduction in the time spent carrying out internal auditing.
• Increasing the time available to allow the company to focus on its business goals.

Companies that have quantities of certain types of dangerous substance(s) in excess of defined thresholds are required to meet with the requirements of the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations.  The regulations now apply to generic substance types as well as named substances.  Operators of such sites are required to provide a significant amount of information to the Competent Authority (CA) in order to meet the requirements of the regulations.  Pro Enviro have provided advice under COMAH to a wide range of organisations in the manufacturing, chemical and logistics sectors involved in handling of aerosols, alcoholic mixtures and other high risk substances.

Pro Enviro can advise on all aspects of managing risk under the COMAH regulations including:

• Developing and auditing a Safety Management System (SMS)
• Producing a full Safety Report (Top Tier and Lower Tier)
• Major Accident prevention Policy (MAPP)
• Carry out modelling for incidents such as spillage, fire and flood to assess environmental consequences
• Implement a HAZOP programme, chair meetings and implement change
• DSEAR/HAC study
• MATTE reviews
• Emergency Plan or any other technical reports
• Risk assessments required by the CA

COMAH 5 Year Review

There is a further requirement on site operators to undertake a systems review 5 years from the time that the initial COMAH report was adopted or at any time when there is significant operational change.  Pro Enviro`s consultants can undertake reviews of existing top and lower tier COMAH sites to ensure that risk management systems continue to be suitable and sufficient and recommend improvements where these will benefit you in properly managing risk.

Major benefits of COMAH and related studies are:

• Identify potential dangers to life and materials in advance
• Provides opportunity to plan preventive and corrective measures
• Helps in identifying high risk processes and related safety measures required
• Compliance with regulatory and legal requirements