Guest lecturer reports - Essay Example

Health and Safety Lecturer: In the incident of an individual or group of people commit an offence in relation to health and safety, with the consent or connivance of, or rather is attributed to a neglect on the part of a manager, director, other officers or the secretary of the company/organization, then the company or the identified violators can be prosecuted under section 37 with charges relation to Health and Safety at Work, in accordance to Act 1974 (Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, s.37). Any organization therefore is expected to have in place, the Health and Safety executives who are charged with the responsibilities of being the national independent watchdog for work-related health, safety and illnesses issues.

Thus, helping in preventing staff and other individuals from being injured, killed, or made ill by the activities carried out by the organization. There are a number of very important regulations to ensure safety. For instance, there are the electricity at work regulations of 1989; reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations of 1995; provision and use of work equipment regulations 1998; dangerous substances and explosive atmosphere regulations of 2002, and; supply of machinery (Safety) regulations of 2008.

All these regulations are inclined to section 6 of the Health and Safety at Work Act which places specific duties on individuals who are charged with the responsibilities of designing, manufacturing, importing or supplying articles to be used at work places to make sure that such articles are so constructed and designed in a manner that upholds the principles of safety and with no affiliated risks to users’ health. Breaking of the health and safety laws is liable to recovery charges in relation to time and efforts spent in putting right, investigating and ensuring proper enforcement actions.

This is as illustrated below; Time, money and efforts on one side and risks involved on the other side of the balance means that some computations have to be involved entire framework in which the quantum of risks are placed on the one scale and the sacrifices, i.e., time, money or difficulties involved in the measures necessary to avoid the risks which are on the opposite side (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg270.pdf). To ensure conformance to the organizations’ Health and Safety, various authorities have to come in.

For example, see the table below; Authority Area Environmental Health Pollution Trading Standards Problems with goods and services Highways Department Roads and pavements Building Control Dangerous buildings Police Road traffic Vehicle and Operator Services Agency Vehicle road worthiness Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) Railway health and safety Environmental Agency Waste, contamination & air pollution Full implementation of the basic Health and Safety principles revolves under very simple and key strategies.

An organization has to identify whoever will be responsible for helping in the safety duties; draft a Health and Safety policies for the organization; working in consultation with the employees; providing relevant information and training on Health and Safety; providing adequate facilities for safety purposes; observing precautions on First aid, ill health and accidents; insurance; keeping up to date, and; health and Safety posters. Safety and health within an organization have to be included within the organizational strategic plans.

Issues such as the possible sources or causes of safety violation to the individuals within the organization, and accurate decisions on best resolutions to avoid the occurrences of any harm are very necessary. These initiatives are in most instances called the risk assessment strategies (Stranks, 2005). A well defined risk assessment strategy for an organization does not however eliminate all the possible risks within an organization, but offers prompt protective measures to organization’s workers by providing efficient measures to control the risks.

Risks assessment tools will thus be beneficial in helping the organization to identify impending risks recommend best solutions. It should be noted that in most instances, serious accidents occur in organizations as a result of poor safety management or culture; failures in performing adequate risk assessment and unsafe working practices; competent individuals’ failures to apply their knowledge and experiences in avoiding possible dangers, and; poor maintenance and installations of appliances within the organization.

Bibliography Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, s.37 http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg270.pdf Stranks, J. (2005). Health and Safety Law (5th Ed.). London: Prentice Hall.