Memorandum by the Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) (FRS 65)
1. INTRODUCTION
1. The Health & Safety At Work etc Act
1974 (HSWA) and relevant subordinate regulations apply to the
Fire and Rescue Services (F&RS) as they do to any other work
activity, with the Fire Authorities holding the duties of employers.
(There are a few specific exceptions in the details of subordinate
legislation recognising particular technical issues faced by FRS.)
A summary of the main features of HSWA is given in Appendix A
2. The context for HSE's work is set by
the Health and Safety Commission (HSC). HSC has overall responsibility
for policy on health and safety, and, uniquely among other government
regulators, advises Ministers on relevant standards and regulations.
The Chair and members of the Commission are appointed by the Secretary
of State for Work and Pensions. HSE advises and assists HSC and
has a statutory responsibility to make adequate arrangements for
the enforcement of the Act and other relevant statutory provisions
in Great Britain. HSE implements its share of the HSC work plan,
itself approved by Ministers, and exercises a number of functions
that HSC delegates to it.
3. HSE inspects F&RS activities locally
and maintains close working relations with ODPM and national F&RS
stakeholder bodies. This interaction is guided by the HSC strategy
"A Strategy for Workplace Health and Safety in Great Britain
to 2010 and beyond" and the agenda of the Ministerial
Taskforce on Health, Safety and Productivity in the Public Service.
Further details of the latter, along with information about another
main HSE work stream with the F&RS, are described below.
4. In addition to the application of health
and safety legislation to protect fire service employees themselves,
HSE has enforcement responsibility for all fire precautions (including
general fire precautions) in certain sectors where this is appropriate
because of the nature of the work, such as offshore installations,
underground mines, nuclear sites, ships under construction and
repair and some construction sites. More generally, though in
most workplaces the local fire authority is responsible for general
fire precautions, HSE also has responsibility in relation to process
fire precautions. More information is provided on these matters
and relevant relations with the fire service in Appendix B.
5. In regulating major hazards we work closely
with local fire services, jointly devising and exercising emergency
plans. These arrangements work well and provide a coordinated
service for dutyholders.
6. In particular, HSE staff work in cooperation
with local and regional fire and rescue services in the assessment
of emergency response plans that have been submitted for COMAH
sites ie sites subject to special regulation because of the large
inventories of dangerous substances kept there. They also discuss
the adequacy of generic emergency arrangements for non COMAH major
hazard sites. HSE operational inspectors and technical staff who
attend in the event of a real major hazards incident, work in
close cooperation with the onsite incident commander to assist
in ensuring the rescue and emergency response is conducted appropriately.
7. HSE's Nuclear Safety Directorate (NSD)
interacts extensively with the Fire &Rescue Services in connection
with emergency arrangements at nuclear sites. This involves discussions
and exercises at local, regional and national levels. NSD also
participates with CFOA in attending DTI's Nuclear Emergency Planning
Liaison Group. In the event of a nuclear incident staff from HSE's
Nuclear Safety Directorate are available to give specific advice.
8. Under HSE's duties as a Category 2 responder
under the Civil Contingency Act staff have been working with the
Fire and services and other category 1 responders to develop local
and regional resilience risk registers and associated action plans.
In the event of a civil contingency event HSE staff will be available
to assist fire and rescue services by providing information they
have about the industrial processes involved; advice on such things
as risks to workers, safe systems of work, safe systems for testing
whether decontamination are successful and to assist with investigating
causes/initiating events.
2. CONTACTS BETWEEN
HSE AND THE
FIRE & RESCUE
SERVICE
9. Because of the varied risks that firefighters
have to approach and accept as part of their work, health and
safety considerations naturally permeate most F&RS operational
planning, training, and equipment design and purchase. HSE is
therefore very often consulted by national stakeholders and provides
them with technical and legal advice.
10. To promote the application of sensible
health and safety and for effective consultation over issues that
affect the whole service, HSE maintains close connections with
ODPM and national F&RS stakeholder bodies. In particular,
HSE is represented on the Practitioners Forum, the National Health
& Safety Group that reports to the Practitioners forum and
the CFOA Health & Safety Committee. HSE also advises some
specialist committees on health and safety considerations that
may arise in their work eg the Practitioners Forum New Dimensions
Sounding Board and the ODPM IRMP Steering Group.
11. These links are important as they facilitate
efficient national collaboration between HSE and the F&RS
on standards, technical solutions and guidance, which are then
available to the individual dutyholders throughout the country.
The new bodies such as the Practitioners Forum and the National
Health and Safety Group have been allocated significant health
and safety tasks and, as mentioned above, health and safety issues
will arise in many of the other tasks they undertake. It is important
that they have their own adequate access to health and safety
expertise and advice so that health and safety considerations
can be taken on board in their discussions and decisions in such
a way as to lead to appropriate and realistic health and safety
requirements/coverage in their work.
3. MAIN CURRENT
HSE WORK STREAMS
ON HEALTH
& SAFETY IN
THE FIRE
& RESCUE SERVICE
(i) Ministerial Task Force Agenda &
Sickness Absence Research Project
12. Following the publication of the Government/HSC
"Revitalising" initiative in 2000 the HSC recognised
that the public sector (which accounts for 20% of the workforce)
needed to make a contribution, especially for days lost through
work related ill health. The programme aimed to achieve a 30%
reduction in the number of days lost to work related injury and
ill health in the public sector by 2010.
13. In 2004, recognising that top level
commitment was a key to success, the then Minister for Work (Des
Browne) asked HSE to establish the Ministerial Task Force on Health,
Safety and Productivity in the public sector (MTF) to provide
the impetus to deliver reduced sickness absence. Further information
on the MTF, on which ODPM is represented, is provided in Appendix
C
14. HSE will be working with ODPM and, in
the first instance, national F&RS stakeholder bodies—including
the Audit Commission—to promote the MTF agenda in the fire
and rescue service. As the first major work stream, HSE and ODPM
have agreed to work together on a joint research project which
will pick up issues raised in the Thematic Review "Fit for
Duty? Seeking a healthier Fire Service," on sickness absence
and ill-health retirements in the Fire Service, undertaken by
HMFSI published in 2000.
15. As a starting point, the project will
revisit the recommendations of "Fit for Duty" to see
what has been implemented, to what effect and what further action
may be appropriate, given the many changes since the review was
published.
16. The project will provide the background
and impetus for enhancing the uptake in the F&RS of the key
elements that the Ministerial Task Force is looking to public
sector employers to adopt in order to achieve its target of a
30% reduction in sickness absence. These are:
(i) introduction and use of management systems
to provide for real time recording and audit and agreed trigger
points for interventions;
(ii) integration of absence and performance
management;
(iii) training of staff managers in systems
and procedures of absence management and skills to manage members
of staff who are off sick; and
(iv) providing sufficient support for managers
and people on sickness absence from Human Resources and related
support services, including formal access to occupational health
services focused on early appropriately targeted effective interventions
and early return to work.
17. ODPM collects and publishes statistics
on sickness absence levels on an annual basis from all Fire &
Rescue Services in England. (Scotland has always been separate,
while responsibility for the F&RS in Wales has now been devolved
to the Welsh Assembly). ODPM had set targets to reduce sickness
absence from 9.2 shifts per person in 1998-99 to an average of
6.5 shifts per person for fire fighters and from 13.4 to 5.4 shifts
per person for fire control staff by March 2005. An analysis of
the statistics for the three most recent years for which data
is available (2001-2004) shows that absence levels have remained
static (no upward or downward trend) and that targets set by ODPM
for 2005 are unlikely to be met. (It is accepted that this is
set against a background of national industrial action and ongoing
local disputes.)
18. HSE is working with stakeholders to
develop the way forward with this project. For the first stage
of this project, we are considering a qualitative approach to
map what individual fire and rescue services have done to reduce
sickness absence, the impact of their efforts and initiatives
and the reasons behind their success or otherwise. We will also
be assessing their sickness absence management systems, occupational
health provision and management training for enabling and supporting
the improvements necessary to achieve the MTF target. Depending
on what is discovered in this first phase, pilot projects will
be set up to test products and good practice strategies and approaches
aimed at implementing the key elements of the MTF recommendations,
as outlined above, and overcoming any barriers that may be identified.
(b) HSE—Fire & Rescue Service
Inspection Protocol
19. HSE is keen to work with the F&RS
and national stakeholders to ensure that the health and safety
of both the public that the F&RS serve and that of F&RS
employees themselves is preserved.
20. As an aid to clarifying and setting
guidelines for the relationship between HSE and the F&RS,
HSE has been negotiating the text of a "Protocol on the Inspection
of Fire and Rescue Service Activities by the Health and Safety
Executive" which will be signed by representatives of the
fire service employers organisations in England, Scotland and
Wales and relevant government bodies. The Fire Brigades Union
has also been consulted about the text, which is now nearing completion.
21. The Protocol sets out guidance on HSE's
inspection and enforcement activity within the F&RS and provides
background on factors taken into account when considering compliance
in the F&RS with the requirements of HSWA.
22. The Protocol recognises the duties placed
on F&RA's to make provision for the core functions described
the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 (Fire (Scotland) Act 2005
in Scotland) and the context set by the National Framework under
which they formulate their Integrated Risk Management Plans. It
discusses the application of HSWA in recognising that Fire fighters
and other fire service employees respond in operational situations
that might present significant risk to their health and safety.
The aim is to enable the F&RS to carry out its job in an effective
manner which minimises injury and ill-health.
23. The protocol explicitly recognises that
the nature of F&RS work means that not all situations are
predictable and that fire-fighters and other employees need to
respond to the demands of rapidly changing situations and cannot
always rely on adherence to set procedures. Fire fighters and
other employees must be given appropriate training and made aware
of hazards likely to be encountered in order to enable them to
deal with situations they encounter as effectively and safely
as possible.
24. HSE recognises that operational decisions
may have to be taken quickly on the basis of incomplete information.
If HSE needs to investigate an accident to a firefighter on the
fireground, it will generally investigate the underlying causes.
All investigations will be looked at on their own merits, having
due regard to the circumstances of the case, and any enforcement
decisions will be taken in accordance with HSE's Enforcement Policy
Statement, taking account of the Code for Crown Prosecutors. In
considering the public interest, HSE will consider what information
should reasonably have been known at the time, rather than applying
hindsight to the detail of every individual operational decision.
25. In the light of the principles set out
as above in the draft protocol and HSE's desire to see "Sensible
health and safety, sensibly applied", HSE is keen to deal
with any perception or concern that health and safety requirements
may unnecessarily hinder the Fire Service in the discharge of
its public service. We are planning to organise events to be associated
with the signing of the Protocol at which we will seek a common
and realistic understanding with stakeholders of the practical
implications of HSWA for F&RS activities so that we can ensure
that duty holders apply appropriate and sensible precautions without
unduly inhibiting their work in training or on the fire ground.
26. HSE's view on many of these issues was
set out in "Training for Hazardous Operations—A Case
Study of the Fire Service", first published in 1984 but now
out of print. This discussed the important role of realistic training
in preparing firefighters for actual operations and the significance
of the public utility of the service provided by fire fighters
as a consideration in applying the law. This document can provide
a focus for the events we are planning and interest has been expressed
in updating and republishing it.
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