Engineering Compliance – are you wondering where to start?
I was given responsibility for Engineering Compliance and asked to conduct a gap analysis against the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER).
I read the ACOP and realised PUWER is not very prescriptive overall and sits right in the middle of a broad legislative structure – I wasn’t sure where to start. The initial journey of discovery and rectification was a 2 year project and having moved into the compliance industry 18 years later I am documenting the journey.
As Engineers we are not H&S Professionals, we simply establish what needs to be done, pull together resources and deliver smartly in a project.
Firstly – Lets deal with the why
In most companies the H&S department will be responsible for compliance with all regulations – which relate to work equipment. If supply regulations and equipment design directives are followed, then compliance is straight forward. However, legacy equipment and equipment supplied outside the regulatory framework can fall between the gaps.
However, burying ones head in the sand could result in prosecution. So let’s start by looking at the potential impact of non-compliance. Below are links to the various HSE enforcement and prosecution databases
Next we will have a look at the structure of the Regulations
An Act of Parliament – is a bill approved in the House of Commons, the House of Lords and given Royal Ascent by the Monarch. All Acts of Parliament together form UK Statute Law. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) own and enforce a number of acts – a full list can be found here.
Working your way down the list you will find the – Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. This is an enabling act enabling Regulations to be made under it – the act can be found here on legislation.gov.uk.
A Statutory Instrument – changes or updates an Act of Parliament and in doing so creates the Regulations under the act. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) own and enforce a number of statutory instruments – a full list can be found here.
Working your way down the list you will find the Statutory Instruments shown in the table below.
As the language and structure of the Statutory Instruments can be complex and confusing – Approved Codes Of Practice (ACOPs) have been published to communicate the requirements of the regulations in meaningful terms.
If the Approved Codes of Practice are implemented you will normally be doing enough to meet the requirements of the regulations. If they are not followed then compliance may be achieved by other means, but the ACOPs will be used as the point of reference by the HSE.
Aims and Objectives
Bearing in mind that the H&S team will be managing compliance with most of the regulations, the below shows the regulations for which a joint review with Engineering should highlight any gaps. There should be plenty of overlap.
This is not an exhaustive list – rather a starter for ten, for an average UK manufacturing operation.
Have a read and start by listing top level objectives – in the MHSWR you should note Regulation 3 – which states the requirement conduct risk assessment and Regulation 4 – which provides the principles of prevention ie. addressing the identified risks.
In summary embracing the regulations – the risks need to be identified, and level of risk needs to be kept as low as reasonably practical, on a risk vs cost basis.
Regulation Name | Statutory Instrument | Approved Code Of Practice (ACOP) | Additional (ACOP) | Parent - Act of Parliament |
MHSWR 1999 | Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations (MHSWR ACOP) | |||
PUWER 1998 | Safe Use of Work Equipment (PUWER ACOP) | Safe Use of Power Presses (Power Press ACOP) | ||
LOLER 1998 | Safe Use of Lifting Equipment (LOLER ACOP) | |||
PSSR 2000 | Safety of Pressure Systems (PSSR ACOP) | Written Schemes of Examination (WSE INDG178) | ||
COSHH 2002 | Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH ACOP) | Controlling Airborne Contaminants at Work (HSG 258) | ||
EAWR 1989 | Electricity at Work Regulations (EAW ACOP) | |||
You need to optimise the above list to meet your specific requirements. For example you may not have Power Presses so this one can be removed from your bed-time reading list. However, you may have a fuel storage facility so may need to add COMAH. As a starting point – study this list and pull in any additional regulations and ACOPs needed.
At this point – you should have enough information/knowledge to build your compliance improvement strategy. Which may include obtaining the support of a specialist services provider to finalise/validate the strategy and potentially support implementation.
Regulatory Blog
If you have followed my journey as a new duty-holder and working with duty-holders with significant responsibilities and developed your strategic approach to regulatory compliance, fully embracing the above in exactly the same way, then you should have a strong structure for regulatory compliance in place.
We are now going to fast forward to the next part of the journey, where we look at the duty-holders responsibilities through my eyes in todays role as the competent person, as we now consider maintaining and future proofing our regulatory compliance strategy.
You will note that the journey so far – has simply pulled together publicly available information from a few UK government websites. To enable you to understand what you need to do next, we will look at the HSE requirements and link it to the vast knowledge of the Safety Assessment Federation (SaFed) – in bite sizes chunks.
About us
The mission is to leverage the experience gained from an 18 year compliance journey, pulling together information and providing meaningful context through – thought leadership.
Core objectives:
- A clear – What-if
- Relevant Legislation (ACOPs)
- Meaningful context
- Comfortable reading experience
- Competent person perspective
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