Health and Safety: Work hazards

Related tags Risk assessment Health Liability insurance

The health and safety of your staff and customers can be an expensive issue to ignore. Adrian Davies offers practical advice to businesses.Running a...

The health and safety of your staff and customers can be an expensive issue to ignore. Adrian Davies offers practical advice to businesses.

Running a pub has many challenges - like promoting the business and making a profit - but assessing and managing the risk of injury to employees and the public is one that is often overlooked.

You can't always avoid accidents but the true story on this page (see below), is an example of what can happen if you don't prepare for them. The pub's owner found himself more than £30,000 down simply because he hadn't followed the correct procedures.

So what do you need to do to stop this happening to you? Let's start with the basics.

Risk assessment

All businesses must have a risk assessment completed for their premises and types of work carried out there. This is not only a legal requirement but also has the positive knock-on effect of making the business a safer place for staff and customers.

The risk assessment must be carried out by a competent person, someone who is aware of the hazards associated with the particular type of business, in your case, a pub. The assessment can be carried out by an employee or manager if they have received sufficient training for the task or a specialist health and safety advisor can be hired.

More information on this subject can be obtained from your local environmental health department or on the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) website.

Accidents

When an accident happens on your business premises, whether it's to an employee or member of the public, you must make a written record of the incident. Accident books that comply with the Data Protection Act are available from HSE books - telephone 01787 881165 and quote ISBN 0717626032. Single books are available at £4.75.

Insurance

Make sure you have sufficient insurance cover for your business. Most insurance brokers can give you a quote on public liability insurance but you may get a better deal if you are a member of a professional body.

If you employ staff you must have employer's liability insurance cover. Most insurance brokers can provide you with a quote although, as above, a better deal may be obtained through a professional association.

Getting started

Business Health and Safety starter packs are available from the Health and Safety Executive online at www.hse.gov.uk/smallbusinesses/gettingstarted or you can phone 01787 881165.

The packs, priced at £30, help you understand your duties and the facilities you must have at your business.

I would additionally recommend pub owners and managers attend a four-day health and safety course called IOSH Managing Safely. Information on this course can be sought from a national training provider such as CHSS at www.chss.uk.com.

The danger of failing to assess your risks

Failure to carry out health and safety basics can come back at you - as one Midlands licensee discovered. After a gig at one of his pubs, the band's equipment was left in a storeroom behind the bar, to be picked up next morning.

While carrying a speaker through the bar hatch one of the band tripped over a heating pipe that ran round the bar, ending up on his back with the speaker on top of him and was taken to hospital.

Worried about the accident the pub's manager contacted the licensee to find out what to do. His boss told him not to worry, saying the heating pipe had been there for many years and was a common feature of pubs all over the country. Two months passed. One morning the manager opened a letter from a solicitor representing the injured band member, who had been unable to work following the accident and was seeking damages. The letter asked for the details of the the pub's public liability insurance but this had lapsed. Two days later an environmental health officer (EHO), who had been tipped off about the incident, visited the pub and asked to see the accident book - but no record had been made. The EHO inspected the area where the accident happened and pointed out that the heating pipe was an obvious trip hazard which is usually picked up during a risk assessment - but the pub had not carried out a risk assessment.

The EHO issued the manager with an improvement notice giving 21 days to have the risk assessment completed and the trip hazard removed. Furious, the boss contacted the EHO and aired his opinion in foul language. He was advised to get legal advice, as a criminal prosecution was being prepared under the Health and Safely at Work Act.

Each of the charges he faced could carry a sentence of six months and fines of up to £20,000. His solicitor advised him that fighting the case was futile and potentially damaging, as he did not have any supporting documentation to demonstrate he had complied with health and safety regulations. All he could do was comply with the improvement notice and plead guilty.

The case was heard in the magistrates court and the licensee was fined a total of £3,252 plus £657 in costs, reduced because of his early guilty plea. The injured band member settled out of court a year later for £27,000.

  • Adrian Davies has been a full-time safety advisor for eight years and has worked in the construction, NHS, chemical and manufacturing industries. He has a health and safety consultancy called Simply Safe (UK) which specialises in pub and restaurant safety. For advice call 07789 657595 or email adrian.davies@skanska.co.uk.

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