Rank: Guest 
|
Posted By Angela Oakey-Jones
Can anyone provide any details of court cases in which safety advisors have been criticised either for inappropriate or incompetent advice.
I intend to use any anecdotal evidence to support a request for wireless laptops to be provided for our team of advisors enabling access to technical H&S information to be downloaded when out on the ground.
I'd be grateful for any help you can give
Angela
0207 230 4532
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Guest
|
Posted By Karen Todd
Hello Angela,
I can't find anything which is exactly what you are looking for.
The closest thing I can find is in HSEs database that there was an improvement notice F090002148 served against Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust on 09/05/2001 for (amongst other things) having insufficient competent persons and insufficient training of competent persons.
So, insufficient training may indicate that someone is not competent but certainly access to proper information would help them give correct advice - I have to look things up all the time through the internet, legislation, HSE guidance & ACOPS, British Standards, etc.
It would also be good to be able to access the information instantly as per your intention, instead of having to tell people you will get back to them. However, perhaps it is better to have to go away to look stuff up, make sense of it all, then get back to someone rather than trying to give them an instant answer under pressure.
Regards,
Karen
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Guest
|
Posted By Sean Fraser
I tend to agree with Karen - most general questions can be answered at the time, but where it is important I would think it would assure people that some effort has gone into exploring the issue in more detail and reporting back, rather than expecting a detailed answer there and then. This time not only allows for information to be sought, but also consultation with collegues and a concensus of opinion to be formed so if the question arises elsewhere for someone else, they'll have the answer to hadn rather than look it up for themselves and perhaps come to a contradictory conclusion. After all, consistency of message is just as important!
The training of your people is crucial and it needs to be commensurate with the level of complexity and risk involved - horses for courses. Some might specialise and can answer just about any question on the hoof, but their competence will only be in that area - some may require a little knowledge but in a wide range of issues, where it is important to know where and how to look up the information they need to come to a decision.
Remember, a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Guest
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Guest
|
Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Angela
There was a safety consultant prosecuted for incompetent advice (under the Asbestos Regs, I think) but I can't track down the citation. There was an article in the Practitioner some time ago about the case.
Paul
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Guest
|
Posted By A Olsen
I seem to recall that there was criticism of the risk assessment conducted by the Safety Adviser during the prosecution in 1998 of MacGregor Energy for the Glomar Artic fatal accident.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.