FTA HAS campaigned successfully for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to amend its RIDDOR reporting guidance to avoid penalising businesses unfairly as they restart their operations under the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the new reporting guidance employers must make a judgment as to whether a confirmed case of COVID-19 in an employee is likely to have been caused by occupational exposure; this amendment provides employers with flexibility to decide if submitting a report is required.
Elizabeth de Jong, director of policy at FTA, commented: ‘Before this addition, our employer members were concerned that the lack of clarity on the guidance would have left them vulnerable to excessive or unfair litigation. It would have hindered the return to work and created apprehension among both workers and their employers, ultimately impacting the nation’s economic recovery.
‘The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) puts duties on employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises to report occupational diseases, including COVID-19, among the workforce.
NHS has issued an alert to the potential fire risk in vehicles caused by alcohol based hand sanitisers, following reports of the small plastic containers being the cause of fires when left in a vehicle in exceptionally hot weather.
The alcohol hand sanitiser becomes heated, resulting in flammable vapours being released. These vapours reach their flashpoint and then ignite in normal air conditions, setting fire to flammable components within the truck cab.
So, remove all alcohol based hand sanitiser products from vehicles when they are not occupied, is the NHS advice.
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