Are you health and safety compliant?
The Health and Safety Offences Act 2008, a new piece of legislation that will give courts greater powers of sentencing and increase fines for those who breach health and safety legislation, came into force in January 2009.
This Act is an amendment to the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and widens the range of offences for which an individual can be imprisoned and increases the maximum penalties that can be imposed for health and safety regulation breaches, from £5,000 to £20,000 in the lower courts.
Although there are no apparent changes to the existing legal duties of businesses, it further emphasises the importance of minimising potential risk and aims to encourage employers to comply with the law.
Health and safety regulations state that every person within a building, whether employees, temporary staff, visitors or contractors, must be made aware of emergency exits and procedures. For employees, this generally constitutes part of an induction process, but for visitors and contractors this can sometimes be overlooked.
Visitors and contractors must not be left to roam unsupervised through vulnerable areas of their premises. Suitable precautions must be taken to identify legitimate guests and a system installed to determine where, when and why they are on site and who is responsible for them.
Processes must be put in place to restrict unauthorised access to high-risk areas, therefore significantly reducing the risk of injury and/or damage. A dedicated VMS can help ensure effective processes and procedures are in place for minimising risks and that they are consistently adhered to. The visitor pass can incorporate details of building layouts and procedures which can be printed on the back of guest passes. By adding these details to your VMS, you can ensure that your visitors have read them and signed their acknowledgement, therefore meeting the duty of care. Whether a business is contained on a single site, a multi-tenanted building or across a number of different locations, there is a system on the market to suit every type of organisation.
The hand-written system is easy and effective to use; visitors simply fill in their details onto a pass which then automatically transferred onto an integral register. Each pass can be designed to the bespoke requirements of each organisation incorporating the company logo and health and safety regulations such as emergency exits and fire procedures. The integral register provides an instant and up-to-date list of visitor’s onsite and can be easily utilised in the event of a fire.
Kalamazoo’s PC-based VMS, VisitorNet, gives organisations the ability to capture detailed information and quickly pre-book in preparation for their arrival, streamlining the check-in process. This makes it easy to notify hosts of the arrival of visitors through e-mail and SMS text notifications that can be sent simultaneously. Using an electronic signature pad, organisations can digitally capture a visitor’s signature to acknowledge their acceptance of important security and health and safety policies.
For more information about how Kalamazoo can help you to fulfil your duty of care and remain health and safety compliant call our dedicated visitor management specialists on 08445 766770, or e-mail kalamazoo@ksp.co.uk.
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