Posted By James M Watching the Black Watch carrying out track maintenance on national TV leads me to ask do they have any PPE in the forces nowadays?? After Rod's question about RPE (face fit) I would personally be concentrating on the fundamentals. The driver with no helmet on, the person handling the track had no gloves, no overalls, no ear or eye protection. The question I would ask is why are these basic routine tasks not managed correctly? To win a battle you have to get to the start line first. Good luck to everyone moving north with and without PPE. Jim

Posted By Keith32 Wearing hear protection, you wouldn't hear 'incoming fire'. You would want to avoid high velocity lead poisoning, I would guess. Wearing gloves, you might not be be able to get your finger on to the trigger of your rifle (the trigger guard would get in the way. This would prevent you from using the control method you have been issued with - i.e. your rifle to fire back at the blighters, hence not removing the hazard - the enemy. I think this thread is a wind up - if not get real about the realities of military life...

Posted By Murray S Graham Regulation 12 of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992, states that an exemption certificate may be issued in the interest of national security,(self read for more info). I am also sure that there was an ammendment (No5) to the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which excempt the military from this Act and associated Regulations in times of conflict. Speaking from experience if soldiers had to take all the PPE they should have, they would need a vehicle each to carry it all. Hope this answers your question. Murray Graham

Posted By Bob Okay James M, we got you. The TV (news)footage was actually done on a beach near St Andrews as part of a recruitment campaigne and also "wish you were here", and "songs of praise" programmes.

Posted By Keith32 Well said, Heather. As I said I think the orginator of this thread, started this thread as a wind up. James M, contributed to the wind up too. As with a number of other contributors to this thread, I too am ex HM Forces, but not from the green suit brigade. Chocks away, Ginger! (for me), Tally Ho! But still did some basic infantry training etc

Posted By Keith32 I guess you could class an SA80 (piece of crap), SLR and Milan as a piece of PPE? After all they protect you personally... Sorry, I never saw the sharp end from a squaddies point of view, but lifting 1000lb laser guided bombs is a bit difficult. Also they don't fit into your Bergen too well, along with a re-heated, triple spool jet engine - but you could run a bit faster if you had one.

Posted By Laurie It's still a widely held, and mainly erroneous, belief that the armed forces are exempt from H&S legislation when in actual combat. While HM ships at sea do have such a general exemption, for the boys in brown and light blue such an exemption may, I repeat may, be signed by the Minister. So far as I am aware, no such exemption has ever been signed. I repeat my answer to the "RPE & Facial Hair" thread earlier. At the time of the first Gulf War I was acting as HSO at a base in Germany. I formally asked for such an exemption to be signed on behalf of the personnel from my unit, for whom I had HASAWA responsibilities, who were actually in theatre i.e. actually involved in front line combat operations. The exemption was refused, and I was advised that exemption was a matter for local commanders on the ground (which itself is not what the Act calls for). Of course, they didn't have much else to do at the time! If ever the MOD do get around to admitting that Gulf War Syndrome exists, the Minister at the time can sit back and say that he had no idea such things were going on, and senior officers should have complied with HASAWA. Those of us who have been subject to rear echelon efficiency experts know only too well how such scenarios can develop! I well remember a previous minor difficulty in the same general area, and in the same signal delivery that we were congratulated on the number of rounds we had fired in an intense twelve hour period without mechanical failures, we also were also taken to task for "not changing gun barrels after 500 rounds as required by Standing Order blah blah blah" Difficult to believe some 2,000 miles away, but unless you've been b******d about by Whitehall yourself, you really have no idea. Compare the number of politicians and senior officers who have ever been done for incompetence, negligence or dereliction of duty with the number of grunts with a gun who've faced similar charges. I'd better shut up now, lest you think I'm a moaning sod! Good luck to the boys of the Watch. Hope you manage to stay out of real danger, like officers with maps! Laurie

Posted By alex mccreadie The PPE was probably in the same container as the Bullet proof vests that did not turn up.(Think about it????) But dont worry everyone in the MOD got their new chairs.