Morning, I'm just looking for a reality check if I may? To explain, I noticed an ad in the local rag last night selling gritting services - no problem with that, we all need to make a living, however, there's a very legal looking side bar quoting the "HSE Act 1992" and the "HSE preventing slips and trips at work act 2005" with warnings about minimizing risks. Now, I was pretty sure I had not heard of these and when I googled them two things became apparent; 1) The acts quoted are from New Zealand 2) the same quote is being circulated by two or three gritting co's on UK web pages. The wording of the ads is to my mind deliberately disingenuous as the quotes are not wrong but at the same time do not apply in the UK My question; 1) Have I missed these acts in the UK i.e. Are there acts in the UK with these titles? 2) Has anyone else seen similar ads? Cheers, Jim

ExDeeps I haven't seen any of the ads you mention but a quick Internet search of 'HSE preventing slips and trips at work act 2005' brought a result on the first page for a gritting company. As Mike C says perhaps HSE or IOSH should be writing to them to highlight their mistake.

Report them to Trading Standards - this is nothing but scare-mongering.

Sounds like it is a dodgy advert, playing on mis-information or mis-representation (or perhaps just simply an error). The appropriate course of action might be Trading Standards, but isn't it both predictable and depressing that some here seek to condemn so quickly? Even a suggestion that IOSH should be unleashed to deal with those having the temerity to place such an advert! There seems to be a perpetual discussions here among those who will clear snow here, but definitely not there, and might grit but only selectively etc etc. Not forgetting others who will happily sit back and watch people slip and fall while sitting back to enjoy the warm glow of inactivity safe in the knowledge that they are not liable for grazed knees and broken bones. The discussions generally go on, and on, and on, while discussing like barrack room lawyers the perceived legal situation, this seems like throwing stones from deep inside the glass house!

Rise above it and move on. IOSH has no authority in this, or in other matters, and will no doubt falter if it seeks to assume thsuch a role - at least until its members and other supporters can get all of their conkers in a row

Ian this is nothing to do with the perpetual gritting argument. It is a series of companies using false and misleading information about H&S to frighten people into buying their services. I would have thought ANY safety professional would want to see such companies stopped from these tactics.

Reality check complete. I think most of us have seen similar tactics used before; they are quite deliberately intended to 'catch' the less well informed out with the intention of selling their product or services. This sort of behaviour is by no means confined to H&S. I have recently challenged a well known supplier of a lone working system for a misleading article on Corporate Manslaughter in their marketing literature. It 'annoys' me, but not sure if I am going to get too excited about and I am not sure if worthy of intervention by IOSH/HSE; I would think that they have both bigger fish to fry.

To all who replied thank you, I was simply wanting to check I was not missing something before dropping the company a line to point out, in a friendly way, the error in the ad - as for "rushing to Google" it's quick, it's easy but it's not always completely accurate in the results hence the reason for my OP, and TBH it had nothing to do with whether we should grit or not.....;-) Cheers Jim