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New Legislation for April 2010 – What are Your Responsibilities ?

March 10th, 2010

April and October are always interesting in terms of new Regulations in the health and safety world. This April is no different, with some key issues, affecting employers, employees and anyone with responsibility for health and safety. For a complete guide to the changes, who they affect and how to best implement them; download your copy of the Health and Safety Round Up 2010. The changes include:

‘Fit’ for Work ?

The main changes for this Spring include the Social Security (Medical Evidence) and Statutory Sick Pay (Medical Evidence) Amendment Regulations 2010 (yes it’s a bit of a mouthful), which will change the way doctors and employers help employees who suffer health conditions, in returning to work.

This will see GPs issuing ‘fit’ notes as opposed to sick notes and in some cases phased stages for the return to work of employees suffering a medical condition.

Notification to the HSE – Tower Cranes

The new Notification of Conventional Tower Cranes Regulations 2010 will require notification for those conventional tower cranes that are assembled on site from components to be notified to the HSE following installation or re-installation. Notification should take place within 14 calendar days, and the duty to ensure notification is with the employer on site who has primary responsibility for the crane.

HSE guidance (INDG437) has now been issued.

More info on the Tower Cranes Regulations is available with the Round Up.

Protection of Workers from Exposure to Artificial light

The EC Artificial Optical Radiation Directive was adopted in 2006 and must be implemented by April 2010. It proposes aims to ensure worker safety in the workplace from artificial optical radiation including lasers and UV light. The additional aim is for harmonisation of control across European Member Sates. This will have implications for both businesses and employees and further information is available here.

And Now for the Science bit …

The Biocidal Products (Amendment) Regulations 2010 relate to the implementation of a European Directive that extends by 4 years the transitional period during which ‘existing’ active substances used in biocidal products will be reviewed and considered for inclusion in Annex I of the Biocidal Products Directive 98/8/EC (Biocides Directive), and extends data protection by the same period for information submitted under the Biocides Directive.

Other Points of Interest

Other Regulations that are changing include:

Docks (Amendment) Regulations 2010 more …

European Regulation on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (CLP Regulation) more …

How will the new Regulations affect you and your business ? Please feel free to comment below.

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Timber frame insurance controversy: Building responds

March 8th, 2010

By Thomas Lane

We’ve had quite a response to our story on insurers threatening to pull cover on timber frame buildings.

The gist of the responses is we gave the impression that insurers are set to withdraw all cover from all timber frame buildings. We’ve also been criticised for mentioning six people died in a fire in a housing block in Peckham in November.

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Schools construction: plenty to fight for

March 2nd, 2010

By Sarah Richardson

It was difficult to know what kind of atmosphere to expect at this year’s BSEC. On the one hand, schools have been the construction industry’s saviour over the past year, in the face of meltdown in just about every other sector. But on the other, the likelihood of a change of government and unspecified cuts in spending in a few months’ time means that the market is the least certain it’s been in about a decade, and construction firms could be forgiven for turning their attention elsewhere.

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Surfing building.co.uk

February 26th, 2010

By Denise Chevin

For 167 years Building has been at the centre of the construction industry, informing, instructing and entertaining its readers. By investing in teams of journalists who deliver high-quality news, comment, data and technical information, we have throughout those years maintained our pivotal role in the industry we serve.

But times change, and so do the ways companies run their businesses. All the more so when the economy turns down. Building is no exception.

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Ice Ice Baby … Heavy Snow Returns to Scotland

February 26th, 2010

By Lauren Paines

Safety in the Snow- Essential guidance for employers, employees and those with responsibility for health and safety.

After what has seemed to be the longest, coldest, snowiest winter on record; extreme weather is still causing problems all over Scotland. Roads are closed, houses are still without power and the everyday dangers of snow and ice have seen cars stranded, people slipping and injuring themselves and many simply unable to return to their homes.

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The confusion over public sector spending cuts

February 19th, 2010

By Martin Hewes

There has been much comment recently concerning the planned cuts in public sector investment, with a figure of 50% often mentioned. This relates to the planned reduction in public sector NET investment over the period 2009/10 – 2012/13.

However, GROSS investment is planned to fall by a lesser 30% over this same period.

What is the difference between the two measures and which one is relevant to construction companies? Read more >

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Government burglars

February 5th, 2010

By Roxane McMeeken

As Brian Green points out in his column on drumming up work, the government has pretty much kept the industry in business during the recession. About 40% of construction work undertaken in Britain is bought by the taxpayer, compared with 31% in the days when Northern Rock was just a bank with an innovative business model. Read more >

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The end is nigh?

January 27th, 2010

By Graham Kean

If two consecutive quarters of declining GDP is most economists’ definition of a recession; how come only one quarter’s growth at 0.1% seems good enough to mark the end of it?

Regardless of the semantics; yesterday’s announcement of the provisional return of economic growth does illustrate the remaining fragility of the UK economy with a “double dip” back into recession still a real possibility.

Kenneth Clarke and Peter Mandelson’s highly entertaining encounter on Channel 4 News last night just went to highlight that the current battleground is not so much around whether or how much to reign in public spending, but how to finesse the timing of cuts to best insulate the recovery.

There is significant scope to drive greater efficiency from all public sector activities. Sure, we should look hard at the major capital programmes – driving for effective supply chain management and combining multiple programmes across the public sector to deliver more with less – but the real opportunity is to be found within the revenue account. Currently, 15% of the footprint of NHS estate is not-used or surplus to requirements. When you think that this exceeds the total footprint of Tesco UK, it is plain to see that the challenges are not just technical ones, they are cultural and organisational.

So Messrs Clarke, Mandelson (and Cable) need not completely despair even in these straightened times. With real stakeholder engagement and a willingness to embrace public:public and public:private service solutions; built assets, (which typically make up the second highest cost after staff), have the potential to deliver value and enable the delivery of better public services more efficiently.

Graham Kean is head of public at consultants EC Harris LLP.

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After Copenhagen

December 11th, 2009

By Denise Chevin

Whatever happens in Copenhagen this week, the UK has already committed itself to some of the most ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions in the world. It’s worth reminding ourselves of that. It’s also worth asking ourselves what this means and how on earth we might, well, get there. Read more >

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Chancellor starts race to General Election

December 9th, 2009

By Graham Kean

In today’s Pre Budget Report, Alistair Darling has set out a continued commitment to existing investment in education, health and other major public sector programmes for the foreseeable future. As expected, he is protecting major high-profile programmes, but this will inevitably need to be paid for by deeper cuts elsewhere.

There is also a commitment to sell assets that can be managed more effectively by the private sector – good news when linked to the drive for efficiency and the emergence of new service delivery models.

There was actually more reference in Darling’s PBR speech to the problems that were inherited a decade ago, than the achievements to date or initiatives for the future. This will clearly be one of the key battlegrounds in the run up to the General Election…

Housing
Support for tackling fuel poverty continued and will be welcomed by low income families. The new boiler scrappage scheme and tax free selling of energy back to the grid sound like the types of initiative that will pave the way to consumer acceptance of greening measures. This is no bad thing if we are to achieve residential market recovery prior to 2016!

No change to VAT for residential refurbishment is a huge missed opportunity to soften the blow of redirected budgets within the HCA from housing improvement programmes. At a domestic level, this could have been a major coup. No continuation of the stamp duty holiday up to £175,000 is a false economy – we’ve not seen the shift in the housing market to justify this – if anything it should have been increased to £250,000 indefinitely.

Regeneration
Greater flexibility in the way local authorities can use their budgets will create a more efficient use of resource and enable prioritisation of funds.

Even more intensive collaboration between the public and private sectors means that the performance of the public sector will need to be benchmarked against the private; this will create a more focused commercial model. There is also the prospect of much smarter use of public assets to help unlock schemes and create different business models with the public sector sharing in both risk and reward.

Education
A commitment was made to greater skills training opportunities for unemployed under 24 year olds, by shortening the period before training kicks in, to 6 months from 12. How the programmes will be achieved is not yet clear.

Health
Despite major increases in resources, the NHS now has to deliver efficiency. This means both a clinical process review on productivity and a clearer match to its estate needs. By using best practice activity modelling reviewing facilities management operational costs and reducing floor area of delivery, savings can and will be made. To put this in perspective, the surplus NHS property (out of use or functionally inactive used buildings) broadly equates to the entire area footprint of Tesco’s UK business at approximately three million square metres.

Central Government
The Operational Efficiency Programme is still looking for around a 30% reduction in central government office accommodation through better space occupancy (from14.5 to 10 square metres or better per full time employee). This would reduce running costs for this part of the estate by approximately £1 billion per year. There is room for other departments to follow the DCSF’s lead that has cut London HQ costs by £10 million per annum.

Local Government
A fresh look at strategic asset management of the estate can deliver significant operational savings as well as generating capital receipts. Councils should also take an in-depth look at their current property maintenance provisions, as smart procurement and streamlined delivery can deliver savings. Asset led change can deliver efficiencies and act as a catalyst for wider organisational transformation using new ways of working.

Graham Kean is partner and head of public at consultants EC Harris LLP

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