Rank: Super forum user 
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Well, the tenants are not at work, so correct I suppose.
.... but maybe a fireman will slip on the mat as he rushes in to put out a fire :o)
But if tenants do NOT have doormats there is the hazard of not having something to wipe snowy shoes and absorb the water, so melted snow may accumulate around the doorstep causing a slip hazard.....
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Going off topic, it will have the side effect of making cleaning these areas quicker and therefore cheaper for the council.
Are tenants allowed to have their mobility scooters inside their flats then, thought I read on a previous discussion topic on this site they had to be charged outside ?
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Rank: Super forum user
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Clever use of words by HSE. No it has nothing to do with HASAWA, it's the RR(FS)O.
The issue of what is and is not allowed in the common areas of flats is a huge bugbear in the fire safety world. Clearly most doormats aren't going to be a huge problem, but many tenants take it further and you end up with sofas on landings, forests of pot plants on stairways and goodness knows what else. Many landlords find it easier to have a blanket ban as they cannot trust tenants to be sensible. Of course they say "it's elf'n'safety innit" to hide the fact that actually it's their own inability to manage their tenants.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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HSE, and IOSH also, have worked hard to hijack the phrase 'Health & Safety' to imply that however and wherever it might be used it falls within their remit and must be considered only in strict relation to specific legal obligations and the full force of law.
That is wrong.
If a property owner or employer wants to impose rules, and wants to describe them as health & safety rules, then so be it. Those rules will hopefully meet, but can exceed, any requirement in law.
As a landlord, if I want to describe condition X, Y or Z as falling within 'health and safety' that is my prerogative. As an employer, if I want to impose an additional health and safety rule, for example to make it a condition that hands will be washed at specific instances where I perceive a need, then so be it. Don't play the barrack room lawyer and get confused with the legal concept.
If I want to impose rules about eating at desks, or that cup of coffee near the keyboard, I will do. If I foresee an issue of damage caused by spillages that has a safety impact I will prohibit it and call it a safety rule. It's H&S for me, and that is the end of it. I don't need some idiot from HSE trying to pigeonhole it into the legal framework and then telling me that I have it wrong.
Do remember that the phrase is, and can, and will, continue to be used in the informal (non-legal) sense. That is permissible, and often quite sensible. Of course, it is misused and sometimes badly so, but that is made worse by this foolish carping that assumes 'health and safety' is some sort of protected term.
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Rank: Super forum user
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There are two approaches
Zero tolerance or manage the risks.
http://www.local.gov.uk/...777/PUBLICATION-TEMPLATE
As far as I'm concerned fire is a safety hazard in what Ian describes as the "informal sense".
Wish that sometimes those in the myth busters panel would remember how to interpret Plain English, and not restrict their thinking to HSE enforced legislative legalese.
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Rank: Forum user
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I think Ian at #5 makes a good point.
The document Peter refers to in his post is one I use regularly and it a very useful publication.
I get quite cross how the HSE use semantics and poor clarification in there replies to these type of articles. They do nothing to help the H&S cause, but really seem to hinder it further.
I think they need to be reminded that the common areas of flat blocks are workplaces and by definition the HASWA apply as well as the FSO.
As Zimmy often says, rant over........
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Rank: Super forum user
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Thank you. But let's not reserve our criticism solely for HSE. IOSH and many users here all too often take a similar line. That view, that 'health and safety' is ours and ours alone is frequently edged with vitriol, and almost always misplaced
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