No change policy at HSE despite rise in fatalities

New head of waste at the Health and Safety Executive Rick Brunt speaks to letsrecycle.com about priorities for sector

Even though the waste and recycling sector saw a doubling in the number of fatalities in the last financial year, the new HSE waste chief has said there will be no change in policy. And, he will continue to have two jobs like his predecessor.

The new chief, Rick Brunt, who has a degree in agriculture, was appointed in January 2014 and also takes up the head of agriculture position at the HSE. He said he looked forward to supporting the agricultural industry as it promotes a culture where risk isnt accepted as a given and those involved in the industry recognise that the toll of deaths and injuries can be further reduced.

On taking up the waste post, he said: I am looking forward to working with the industry, and supporting them in tackling the issues that sit behind the injury statistics.

On waste issues, Mr Brunt told letsrecycle.com that the situation is improving in the sector because the number of injuries has reduced from 512 to 500 despite the increase in deaths.

The comments from Mr Brunt come as some in the sector have told letsrecycle.com that they are concerned that the Executive is still failing to get to grips with health and safety concerns in the waste sector.

Mr Brunt conceded that waste was one of the HSEs priority areas but argued that the doubling in fatalities should not attract too much attention because it could be a one-off figure.

Mr Brunt took over from the now-retired Graeme Walker as the HSEs head of waste and recycling in January (see letsrecycle.com story) and said that many health and safety incidents in the industry follow a similar pattern and can often be avoided with better structures in place.

But, he said, through the sector-led Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) forum, the industry has been working to improve its health and safety record.

Mr Brunt said: You can see the impact [of the WISH forum] and you can see where the industry has taken responsibility for itself, which is great to see. But what can be disheartening is the types of injury and the reasons do not particularly change.

While there is more of a positive approach to safety, the types of incidents are not particularly novel a very high proportion of accidents in waste and recycling are actually people getting hit by moving vehicles or falling and tripping from things they have been climbing on. But there are often relatively simple precautions you can take.

Fatalities

Last year, annual figures for the sector published by the HSE revealed that the number of deaths doubled to 10 in 2012/13 compared to the previous year (see letsrecycle.com story), but Mr Brunt assured the industry that the HSE was doing all it could and that waste and recycling is one of its main priority areas.

Mr Brunt said: Any injury or fatality in any sector is something we do not want to see and it is a tragedy for the families of those involved. We look at the industry holistically as a high risk sector by that I mean that on average its injury statistics are four times worse than any other industry.

He added: The industry is one of HSEs priority areas to deal with. It will receive more of our time in terms of inspections, and we will take any necessary enforcement action in accordance with our policies. We also have the WISH forum working on improving things from inside the industry.

Fatalities in the waste recycling industry since 2007

However, Mr Brunt said that injury rates were a better measure of health and safety record than fatality figures, adding that injury rates for the industry which fell from 512 in 2011/12 to 500 last year were showing gradual improvement. The rate stood at more than 600 in 2004/5.

He said: It is difficult to be able to deduce what the number of fatalities means from a single year, because the numbers are relatively low and any change to the numbers will make a big difference it is hard to be able to draw a conclusion.

Overall, if you look at the injury statistics they show continued, gradual improvement so I think things are getting better, but I would not want us to sit on our laurels.

Asbestos

One of the HSEs focus areas for the coming year will be asbestos handling, Mr Brunt said, while data gained from a year of hotspot inspections of materials recycling facilities in 2013/14 is expected to be available in the summer.

He said: One of the things that we will look at in the coming months is waste transfer stations and skip hire where there may be asbestos handling. Intelligence suggests that this is something we should be looking at, as the material can have long term impact. Over 40 to 50 years of someones life you can see the issues, so we are looking at the long term health effects of the industry as well.

But, looking forward from his very interesting first three months in the role, Mr Brunt said there would not be any big changes from HSEs strategy under his predecessor: I think it is important to continue the work that was started and making sure that we dont lose the ground that has been gained.