Health and safety

The Health and Safety team advise on and enforce workplace health, safety and welfare standards within Preston. We are responsible for approximately 2,500 premises and visit premises involved in retail, wholesale, leisure, catering, consumer services and office work.

Latest health and safety news

Changes to RIDDOR

From 6 April 2012,  RIDDOR’s over three day injury reporting requirement has changed. From then the trigger point will increase from over three days’ to over seven days’ incapacitation (not counting the day on which the accident happened). To find out more about the changes to RIDDOR go to the Health and Safety executive reporting of injuries Executive website.

Changes to Asbestos Legislation

The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 came into force on 6 April 2012. They have made minor changes to the present legislation, these include: some non-licensed work needs to be notified[6] to the relevant enforcing authority; brief written records should be kept of non-licensed work, which has to be notified and all workers/self employed doing notifiable non-licensed work with asbestos must be under health surveillance by a Doctor. For more information go to the Health and Safety Executive: control of asbestos website.

Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register

The Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR) is now open to the public. OSHCR is a register of consultants who can offer general advice to UK businesses to help them manage health and safety risks. To find out more about the new register go to the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register website.

What we do

The majority of our time is spent carrying out preventative health and safety inspections of workplaces, investigating accidents at work and responding to concerns about poor health, safety and welfare conditions at work.

• Proactive inspections and other interventions of all workplaces, for which we are the enforcing authority;
• Investigation of accidents connected to work activities;
• Investigation of complaints relating to working conditions of employees, or dangerous activities;
• Inspection and monitoring of public safety in premises licensed under the Licensing Act 2003;
• Registration and inspection of skin piercing activities; acupuncture, cosmetic-piercing, electrolysis, tattooing and semi-permanent make-up to ensure safe and hygienic practices are followed;
• Registration and monitoring of large shops under the provisions of the Sunday Trading Act 1994;
• Provision of information and advice to employers in Preston on complying with workplace health and safety legislation;
• The registration of air-conditioning cooling towers to control Legionnaires Disease;
• Enforcement of the smoke free legislation;
• The health and safety team also work in partnership with a number of other organisation's such as Lancashire Fire and Rescue, Lancashire Constabulary, The Health Protection Agency, NHS Lancashire and the Health and Safety Executive.