The Guardian - March 2010
Landlords - Guide to Landlords' Duties - 'Gas safety, installation and use, regulations 1998'
Poorly maintained gas fittings cause approximately 14 deaths per year in the UK. For this reason, failure to comply with the requirements outlined by the Gas, safety, installation and use, regulations 1998 may result in a prosecution, a fine of up to £20,000 or imprisonment.
Consultant's perspective:
The Gas Safety, Installation and Use Regulations 1998 deal with the safe installation, maintenance and use of gas systems, including gas fittings, appliances and flues mainly in domestic and commercial premises, e.g. offices, shops, public buildings and similar places. The HSE guidance INDG285 (rev2), updated in March 2009, outlines the changes to the registration process from CORGI to GasSafe for persons installing or maintaining gas appliances.
The actual legislation has not changed but as more properties become vacant in this economic climate, it is worth reminding Property Managers and Managing Agents that they still have to maintain gas services and appliances within vacant properties for which they are responsible, unless they have been isolated. Prior to any new lease, the landlord must ensure that a safety check of flues and appliances has been carried out within one year before the start of the lease date, unless the appliances were installed less than a year previously.
Download free HSE leaflet, A Guide to Landlords' Duties: Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998: www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg285.pdf
Changes Made to Asbestos Survey Guidelines: HSG 264 replaces MDHS 100
HSG 264 was released on 29th January 2010 and replaces the previous surveying guidelines MDHS 100. The main differences are that there are now two, rather than three, types of asbestos survey available: Management Surveys and Refurbishment/ Demolition Surveys, the definitions for these are as follows:
Management Survey: (Replaces Type 1 and Type 2 Surveys under MDHS 100)
- Aims to ensure that nobody is harmed by the continued presence of asbestos in premises or equipment, that any found asbestos remains in good condition and that nobody disturbs it accidentally
- The survey must locate asbestos that could be damaged or disturbed by normal activities, foreseeable maintenance, or by installing new equipment
- It involves minor intrusion and minor asbestos disturbance to make a Materials Assessment - this shows the ability of asbestos, if disturbed, to release fibres into the air
- The survey should guide the client by, for example, prioritising any remedial work
- It is emphasised that arranging a survey is only part of the duty to manage asbestos in premises
Refurbishment/ Demolition Survey: (Replaces Type 3 MDHS 100 survey)
- Required where the premises, or part of it, needs upgrading, refurbishment or demolition
- This survey aims to ensure that nobody will be harmed by work on asbestos in a premises or equipment and that such work will be done by the right contractor in the correct way
- The surveyor may need to engage a contractor licensed to work with asbestos to assist with this type of survey
Preventing Health & Safety Slip-ups during the Cold Weather
With the onset of every cold snap, Property Managers are immediately posed with the problem of how best to deal with the icy conditions. The recent news has highlighted many cases where poor health and safety provisions have resulted in serious injury or in some cases death. Roads and pedestrian areas that have not been thoroughly thawed are extremely hazardous, and reaffirm the need to plan ahead for inclement weather.
The most common way to prevent icy surfaces is by using 'grit' (rock salt) as it is cheap, quick to apply and easy to spread.
To reduce the risk of slips in the cold weather, these three steps are crucial:
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Why use grit?
- It stops ice forming & melts existing ice or snow
How much grit to use?
- 10-15gms/m2 as a precaution
- 20-40gms/m2 in ice & snow
When to grit:
- Early evening before frost settles
- Early morning before staff/ customers arrive on premises
- When frost, ice or snow are forecast
- When walkways are likely to be damp & floor temperatures below 0°c
When gritting may not work & conditions to be aware of:
- Rock salt needs sufficient time to dissolve, so does not work immediately
- When snow is compacted
- Ice and snow melted by grit may refreeze over night
- Grit is less effective when not ground down - this is more likely in pedestrian areas than on roads
- Dawn frost can appear on dry surfaces, when dew freezes on cold, dry surfaces, but this condition can be very difficult to predict
Using contractors to grit:
- Landscaping contractors can monitor weather warnings & arrange preventative action
- Gritting contracts should stipulate the areas to be gritted - these should be highlighted on a plan of the site to minimise the areas missed
Report Builder: The Flexible new Module from RiskWise
Report Builder is a client customisable feature that allows the main administrator to create their own online 'Question and Answer' based reports.
To create a completely tailor made report with this highly versatile tool, the user is guided through a simple process for each of the four key components (Topics, Questions, Answers, and Rules).
The first step in the building process is to sort the data by topic; this will vary depending on the particular needs of each report. Next, the user will be asked to assign questions to the relevant topic headings and determine the possible answers. Responses can range from a simple 'yes' or 'no' to rather more in-depth options. The final step in the building process is the designation of rules to certain answers. Rules automatically generate particular actions within the system when certain answers are recorded; the details of such actions (category, severity, hazard, action required and any notes) are all fully customisable. Although not all answers require a rule, if required, one answer can have many attached rules to simultaneously generate a variety of actions within the system.
Having built the structure of the report in this way, the report becomes live within the system and can be logged in a similar way to any other inspection listed in the Year Planner or Property Details screen.
To run the created report, the user will be taken through, topic by topic, until all the questions have been answered. At completion, the inspection summary is displayed, which shows all of the automatically raised actions. For confirmation, the summary screen displays all the questions asked, answers given, and rules automatically generated. Furthermore, as each report is attached to an inspection type, they can be tracked and monitored easily throughout the system, just like a normal inspection, by using data search, the year planner or the dashboard.
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In progress - answering the questions created in Report Builder |
The end product - the summary screen displays actions automatically generated by Report Builders |
For more information please contact Rob Mead: rob.mead@s2partnership.co.uk