Every year hundreds of people are injured at work and in the worst case there can be fatalities. Our aim is to improve health and safety standards in workplaces for employees and visitors within Waltham Forest, and reduce these figures.
Waltham Forest Council is responsible for the enforcement of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and associated regulations, in workplaces throughout the city, these include office based, retail or wholesale, warehousing, hotel and catering, sports or leisure, residential accommodation, excluding nursing homes, concerned with places of worship, pre-school child care, mobile catering and market stalls. More information
» See the Health and Safety Service Plan 2011/12 (61KB PDF file)
What the Health and Safety Executive do
The Health and Safety Executive deal with large factories and other industrial operations.
What we do
Inspections
Last year the Council’s Environmental Health department carried out health and safety inspections of over 219 premises in Waltham Forest.
The purpose of a health and safety inspection is to ensure that any hazards to people’s health, safety and welfare, which arise from a work activity, have been identified and the associated risks have been adequately controlled. This includes risks to both employees and members of the public.
» See what to expect when a Health and Safety inspector calls
Enforcement
We follow the national ‘Enforcement Management Model’ and our own Health and Safety Protocol (51KB PDF file) for deciding what enforcement is needed to tackle the very varied risks we find. Greater risks require more control, and blatantly breaking the law is more likely to lead to prosecution. Less serious breaches of the law are likely to be dealt with by verbal or written warnings, before moving to written legal notices and/or prosecution if the breaches continue.
Complaints
The health and safety team also investigate complaints relating to health and safety matters within workplaces. Complaints about working conditions are always investigated sensitively and the complainant's confidentiality is assured.
Accident investigations
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995 place a duty on employers to report certain accidents and incidents to the local authority. The local authority then investigates to find out what caused the accident and prevent it from happening again.
Accident investigations are sometimes carried out in conjunction with the Health and Safety Executive or the Police.
Last year the health and safety team carried out 56 accident investigations.
» Report an accident or incident
Initiatives and projects
The health and safety section works with others such as neighbouring local authorities, to find alternative ways to get health and safety messages across to employers and employees through initiatives, which make information clear and readily accessible. The initiatives are often based on campaigns being run by the Health and Safety Executive.
In addition to the programme of risk-based inspections there are two projects ongoing this year:
- Hotels and Bed and Breakfasts - advising these businesses to ensure they are complying with Health & Safety legislation especially with the expected influx of guests during the Olympic period.
- Funeral Directors - targeting COSHH and Manual Handling
