Posted By Peter McClenaghan I work for a SME, we do not have an approved vendor list; instead we assess HSE (health safety &environment) questionnaire returns individually. We are about to advertise in the European Journal for contractors to tender for maintenance work of 1-3 years duration. Some returns may be from outside UK, and so some questions e.g. relating to prohibition/ improvement notices, may not be relevant. I need an objective system for measuring systems/ performance, can anyone help, regards Peter McClenaghan.

Posted By Merv Newman As far as I know countries such as France, Holland, Germany and Belgium have systems parallel to prohibitions/improvement notices but you would have to find the right phraseology. Though it varies from country to country, risk assessments and the resulting safety plan (safe method of work) is generally required, particularly where there could be interference between contractor personnel and those of the user company. Injury rates could be (with the usual reservations) pointers to performance. European rates are calculated per 1 000 000 working hours. BIG difference is that the UK "3 day" rule does not apply in europe. One day lost is a LTI" I don't have any immediate numbers for maintenance, though I might be able to look them up. A rough number would be about 30 LTIs per million hours, or, roughly, 5% of the workforce losing at least one working day per year. Send me an e-mail if I can be of any further help Merv Newman