Posted By Sean Warburton
Hi,

Most pieces of Health & Safety legislation has some exemption's in relation to the armed forces. For example reg 20 "exemption certificates" of the MHSAW allows the secretary of state, in the interest of national security to become exempt form most of the regs. I have little knowledge and no experience of the armed forces, but just thought it was worth a mention, hope it helps :)

Posted By Exdeeps
Raymond,
Having spent over 20 years pushing nuclear submarines around before moving into the power industry I think that H&S management in my branch of the forces was superbly managed - something I only came to realise after I had left the Navy. It was the first thing ever mentioned in any courses and was at the heart of every thing I ever did on a boat. BUT it was hidden in the management structure so RA's, MS's "fire drills" were just part of what we did, day in day out.
There is a definite desire to at least achieve the minimum standards required in law even if they are not applicable due to an exemption. The rider on that, obviously, is that when the shooting starts all bets are off, but even that was practised in a highly controlled manner to ensure that the other guys were in more danger than we were.

Posted By Konstanty Budkiewicz
Ray,

I have difficulty with an aspect of your question. You infer that during your service institutional health and safety was not a significant factor in your working life. However, I consider that you are overlooking some very obvious control measures that were built into Army protocols and procedures.

Consider the following: your uniform was also your PPE. You carried respirators to protect you from Nuclear, bio and chemical (NBC) hazards. You were trained to used your personal weapon: it had a safety catch to control stored energy. The bullets were proof tested to ensure that they worked within their intended parameters. Para-troops had a reserved chute - it is an interesting exercise to continue further, but space contrains.

If you are concerned about formal H&S structure I suggest that it was weak before 1986-ish, possible because over reliance was placed upon the exemption clause. However, this did not stop the HSE investigated a number of fatalities and major injuries concerning civilian staff (no exemption applied there). Attendant threatened prohibition orders etc appeared to have motivated the adoption of formal MOD policy, infrastructure and H&S training that is in place today. This has introduced massive changes in Occ Health, CoSHH and manual handling aspects in particular since the 80s.

Regards

Kon CMIOSH

Posted By Stefan Daunt
Enter JSP375 into google, this is the Armies current health and safety file that is available for public veiwing,It has policies down to consultation.

Posted By Stefan Daunt
Other than on the battlefield, Health and safety within the Army now runs parrallel to the civilian World. At one time of day a driver could drive for as long as he wanted. Drives hours now are run the same as for normal haulage companies, enforced rest etc.

Troops are now no longer allowed to travel on bench seats in the rear of 4T vehicles and an Alton Towers system is used to restrain the soldier in the event of an accident, journeys are restricted to 1hour or 40 miles.

Regular spot checks are carried out at units to ensure that equipment is being maintained to a satisfactory standard. Risk assessments are carried out for all activities, use of a training area, service bays, public displays etc.

Posted By raymond garnett
Thanks Steve and Gerard i was a driver in the army and often drove for hours on end without a brake mainly in Germany. Interesting to get some current views on the standard's.

Many Regards Ray