Improving Health and Safety Standards – A Collaborative Approach

ROBERT KIDD, CHIEF EXECUTIVE HSENI

It is critically important to ensure that risks to people’s health and safety arising from work activities are properly controlled. The extractive industry operates in high risk environments and while we cannot remove the risks, we want to ensure that everyone engaged in the industry does everything in their power to manage the risks.

It is important that businesses eradicate dangerous work practices and inappropriate risk taking which increase the risk of a serious incident occurring in the workplace. The role of HSENI in this process is education, inspection, and enforcement. HSENI continues to work with industry partners to improve the health and safety standards within the extractive industry. One recent targeted initiative supported by the Mineral Products Association Northern Ireland (MPANI) has centred on the potentially life limiting effects of exposure to quarry dust. This initiative highlights the potential for a quarry worker to be robbed of their senior years and retirement through the harmful effects of exposure to quarry dust. Quarry Operators have been required to implement a dust strategy for their individual quarry to ensure adequate controls are in place and appropriate measures taken to reduce occupational ill health from exposure to dust. Implementation of these plans across the industry has been encouraging with Operators introducing measures to safeguard the health of their employees both now and into the future. As a result of this initiative HSENI have observed significant improvements made by Quarry Operators in the management of dust within the quarry environment. Another recent example, supported by MPANI and the Institute of Quarrying (IoQ), was the delivery of a number of online workshops to provide practical advice and guidance to Quarry Managers in managing work related stress. This workshop demonstrated the use of HSE’s Management Standards as a tool to control the risks associated with work related stress in their individual businesses.

HSENI are also pleased to continue to support and work in partnership with MPANI on the ongoing campaign for children to ‘Stay Safe Stay Out’. The message is designed to raise awareness amongst younger children, teenagers, parents, teachers and youth workers about the danger of entering quarries uninvited and that quarries are not playgrounds. The current inspection priorities set by HSENI include workplace transport, machinery guarding, maintenance, explosives, excavations and tips, and exposure to dust. A planned initiative for 2022 will concentrate on workplace transport with the focus being on Safe Site, Safe Vehicle and Safe Operator. This will ensure measures are in place for safe vehicle pedestrian segregation, all vehicles are safe to operate and all persons operating vehicles are trained and competent. Continuous improvement of health and safety standards in the workplace requires a collaborative approach involving HSENI, Employers, Employees and Other Partners to reduce workrelated serious injury and ill health in Northern Ireland. We must not be complacent as this is very much a journey to eradicate dangerous work practices, corner cutting, inappropriate risk taking, poor efforts at time saving, all of which increase the risk of a serious occurrence. Essential to this is ensuring the industry equips its employees with the skills and knowledge to carry out their role safely. HSENI remains focused on the important work of stopping unsafe working practices and making work safer every day. We are grateful to all those who share our ambition to make Northern Ireland’s workplaces as safe and healthy as possible.

HSENI, Chief Executive, Robert Kidd.