Health and Safety Executive
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New guidance for local authorities to help improve health and safety in the waste and recycling sector

New guidance is now available to help local authorities understand the importance of a sensible approach to health and safety when it comes to procuring and managing waste and recycling services, in a bid to help reduce death and injury.

The recycling industry has nine times more fatal accidents than the national average and four times as many workers suffer injuries.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified that a contributing factor may be that some local authorities are unclear what their legal duties are and mistakenly believe that putting a service out to contract relieves them of all health and safety responsibilities.

The new online guidance gives practical information on how to make health and safety an integral part of the procurement and contract management process.

HSE will be running a series of regional events giving LA representatives the opportunity to hear more about the guidance, share experiences with others and seek advice on potential management solutions.

Speaking at the first of these events, Judith Hackitt, HSE Chair said:

"Waste and recycling is a sector which is experiencing considerable growth as we all strive to do more to respond to environmental challenges. This makes it doubly important that we take action to respond to the fact that the number of accidents in this sector continues to be high, despite recent improvements, One of the keys to further progress is getting the client/contractor relationships working well.

"The guidance will help local authorities understand the full extent of their role when managing waste and recycling contractors. HSE wants to see occupational health and safety become an integral but common sense part of the specification, procurement and management of waste and recycling contracts."

Case studies of councils that are already working well with their service delivery partners in waste and recycling are also available online.

One such example is Wirral Borough Council which, working with Biffa Waste Services, has created a partnership approach to managing the borough's waste and recycling services. The working relationship they have allows health and safety issues to be dealt with flexibly and efficiently. They have also built in checks to ensure the system is working correctly.

HSE will begin targeted inspections of local authority waste services departments later in the year. Inspectors will be looking closely at the working relationships LAs have with contractors and at any changes that have been made to improve the health and safety standards.

The new guidance and more details about procuring and managing contracts is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/waste/services/index.htm1

Notes to Editors:

  1. Injury rates are calculated by dividing the number of reported RIDDOR injuries by the number of workers employed in the industry. Thus, the comparison of rates from one year to another takes into account changes in employment numbers, whereas a simple number count of reported RIDDOR injuries does not.
  2. HSE commissioned Noble, Denton, Bomel Ltd to conduct research into health and safety in the waste and recycling sector. The research report 'Update to Mapping Health and Safety Standards in the UK Waste Industry' is available at www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr701.htm2
  3. Injury rates for the industry from the updating report (to 2005/06), and by HSE (for 2007/8 and 2008/9) as:
    Year Total injuriesCalculated employmentInjury rate per 100,000 workers
    2001/2 3993 176,309 2265
    2002/3 4176 162,556 2569
    2003/4 4317 165,140 2614
    2004/5 4357 169,077 2577
    2005/6 4456 176,452 2525
    2006/7 4515 185,344 2482
    2007/8 4347 187,134 2384
    2008/9 4328 201,522 2147
  4. For more information about the Wirral Council case study and to view all of the other case studies visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/waste/services/index.htm3
  5. The Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum represents the main stakeholders in the waste and recycling industry and provides information, identifies solutions and stimulates action across the industry to ensure the health, safety and well-being of those working in the industry and those affected by its activities.
  6. On 14 January 2009 the WISH Forum launched its strategy to improve performance in the industry. The strategy has five key objectives, relating to reducing accident numbers, ill health, management, safety culture and competence
    www.hse.gov.uk/waste/wish.htm4
  7. Events are taking place as follows:
    • 19 January - London
    • 26 January - Manchester
    • 27 January - Birmingham
    • 3 February - Edinburgh
    • 9 February - Llandrindod Wells
    • 10 February - Bristol
    • 23 February - York
    • 25 February - London
    For more information visit: http://www.hse.gov.uk/waste/wasterecyclingevents.htm5

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