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peter gotch  
#1 Posted : 20 December 2025 16:45:39(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
peter gotch

Apparently the IOSH customer service centre is still going all the way to 17.00 GMT on 24 December, but many of those who celebtate Christmas will already have shut up shop, some until after the New Year.

Anyway, for those to whom it is relevant Happy Christmas.

For them and most other users of these Forums, have a good 2026, when the New Year arrives.

Who knows what sort of Forums we will have access to courtesy of IOSH in a year's time.

P

thanks 6 users thanked peter gotch for this useful post.
Kate on 21/12/2025(UTC), PDarlow on 22/12/2025(UTC), Martin Fieldingt on 22/12/2025(UTC), DH1962 on 22/12/2025(UTC), George_Young on 23/12/2025(UTC), Torres on 23/12/2025(UTC)
DH1962  
#2 Posted : 22 December 2025 15:02:51(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
DH1962

An old one but this is my version of a Chritmas Greeting I roll out every few years...

Your Health and Safety Manager would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, so far as is reasonably practicable.

This Christmas greeting is given with no obligation and in no way shape or form constitutes a contract or warranty for the delivery of merriment or happiness or that the enormous turkey you only put in the oven at ten o’clock will be edible before Sunday. No liability is accepted and you set that Christmas pudding on fire entirely at your own risk.

You are reminded that you must take reasonable care for the merriment of yourselves and other persons and as regards any duty or requirement imposed on your household or any other person by or under any of the relevant statutory provisions, to co-operate so far as is necessary to enable long, tedious games of Trivial Pursuit that you never damn win to be performed or complied with. The naff paper hat that makes your head itch is classified as PPE and therefore compulsory – so put it on!

Furthermore, no person shall intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of Christmas such as firing the little toy that came out of a cracker into Auntie Ethel’s custard.

Speaking of ‘misuse’, all hazardous substances, particularly large bottles containing alcohol, should be passed to the Health and Safety Manager for “testing”.

You should consume no more than a suitable and sufficient quantity of cake, trifle, mince pies and chocolates the term suitable and sufficient being defined in this instance as no greater than twice your own body weight, per day with the exception that no, you can’t have any at all until you eat that last Brussels sprout.

And don’t get me started on overweight old men landing sleds and scrambling around on roofs covered in ice and reindeer poo and  going down chimneys with presents without a risk assessment, fall arrest equipment or even a simple Permit to Work!

Even furthermore, please accept under aforesaid waiver of liability, best wishes for a financially successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated onset of the next calendar year of the Common Era.

This greeting should be reviewed annually or if there is reason to believe it is no longer valid.

thanks 1 user thanked DH1962 for this useful post.
peter gotch on 22/12/2025(UTC)
peter gotch  
#3 Posted : 22 December 2025 15:46:52(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
peter gotch

Thanks DH.

All I want for Christmas is a prohibition on the use of the word "Zero" in conjunction with words such as "Harm" or "Risk" or similar.

Is that blasphemy?

....or just an acceptance that we treat some risks as "tolerable" whether we admit or not?

thanks 3 users thanked peter gotch for this useful post.
George_Young on 23/12/2025(UTC), DH1962 on 23/12/2025(UTC), Lucy D on 23/12/2025(UTC)
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