Groundwork Business Briefing

Changes in Fire Safety Law in All Non-Domestic Premises

From 1 October 2006, a single fire safety law, called the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, replaced the existing legislation. The new law will affect most premises except private houses and will apply to all employers, the voluntary sector and self-employed people in non-domestic premises.

The employer, occupier, owner or landlord of premises is deemed the “responsible person” and is obliged to:

• Assess the risks and regularly review the fire risk assessment
• Take practical measures to reduce, remove and identify fire risks
• Comply with the legislation

Premises will be subject to inspection by appointed enforcers to check compliance with the law. Fire certificates that are currently effective will be abolished and fire safety conditions of license will cease to apply.

Getting Ready for Better Backs

Running from October, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will be promoting a series of activities related to the Better Backs campaign, including workplace inspections and mass media advertising. The campaign will aim to reduce the incidence of back pain caused or made worse by work.

The campaign will promote sensible workplace precautions that reduce the risk of back pain and emphasise the positive benefits of staying active with back pain. At the same time, it will encourage employers and employees to work together to help people return to normal activities, including work.
The HSE have a wide range of resources available to help publicise this campaign, such as posters, CDs, checklists and advice sheets. Funding is also available to help organisations with the costs of running an event.

North West Takes On the Climate Challenge

The Government has announced the go-ahead for 28 new projects in its campaign to change public attitudes to understanding and tackling climate change. Six of these are from the North West - in Chester, Lancaster, Blackburn and three in Greater Manchester.

The projects, totaling £3.5m, are designed to form part of an innovative new approach to raise awareness at regional and local level of the urgent need to tackle climate change, following the announcement of 53 successful projects in June.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Ian Pearson said it was important to develop new and exciting ways of communicating climate change so that new audiences and communities at national, regional and local level could understand the need to change their attitude towards the issue.

School Bus Pollutants Tackled

A fleet of school buses in Manchester has been fitted with anti-pollution devices in a bid to protect children from potentially deadly airborne particles. The city's Passenger Transport Executive has fitted all 29 of its yellow school buses with emissions scrubbers which can remove up to 99% of the harmful ultra-fine particles from diesel exhaust fumes.

Ultra-fine particulates are one of the most harmful forms of air pollution and are known to contribute to premature deaths as a result of carrying potentially carcinogenic compounds deep into the lungs, worsening asthma and causing heart damage.

The PowerTrap device was produced by
Per-Tec, who are now helping other urban fleets to improve air quality.

Free Save-a-Flush Packs Available

A company with 50 employees could save around 40,000 litres of water a year, making an annual saving of £80, simply by dropping a Save-a-Flush pack into toilet cisterns. The bags are filled with absorbent granules which expand, displacing a litre of water and saving resources and money every time you flush. Free packs are available from Groundwork EBS to be used at your business, so start
saving straight away!

Guide to Environmental Regulations

NetRegs have released a guide to help small and medium sized enterprises understand environmental regulations. The free publication will help businesses to use NetRegs in order to find sector specific information, management guidelines, legislation and further resources.

An online version of the document is available to download from the publications catalogue of the Environment Agency website free of charge at www.environment-agency.gov.uk