HSE have released health and safety at work statistics for Great Britain for 2023/24.

The key figures are:

• 1.7 million working people suffering from a work-related illness, of which
  • 776,000 workers suffering work-related stress, depression or anxiety
  • 543,000 workers suffering from a work-related musculoskeletal disorder
  • 2,257 mesothelioma deaths due to past asbestos exposures (2022)
• 138 workers killed in work-related accidents
• 604,000 working people sustained an injury at work according to the Labour Force Survey
• 61,663 injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR
• 33.7 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury
• £21.6 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2022/23)

You can download the summary booklet here.

Cheshire East Council has been fined £500,000 after ‘the most amazing man’ was killed by a falling tree.

Christopher Hall, 48, from Wilmslow, was walking his dog in The Carrs – one of the town’s parks – on 28 August 2020, when the large limb of a tree fell and struck him. He received multiple injuries and sadly died at the scene.

Less than a year before, another large limb from the same tree had fallen off but the incident was never investigated by the council or its ground maintenance company Ansa Environmental Services Limited. As the District Judge sentenced both at Chester Magistrates Court on 8 November 2024 he said that the previous incident should have “acted as a wake-up call”.

You can read more on the HSE website here.

This week a small group of Network members got together to visit West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative and hear more about the co-operative's biomass district heating system from Director, Grant Clayton.

The group heard from Grant about the district heating project, from the funding, through its development and how the system has benefited tenants and reduced their heating bills. We also heard about the specific compliance tasks and maintenance requirements of the biomass energy centre building and how it is managed 24/7, 365 days of the year to ensure that it continues to operate and supplies domestic heating and hot water to all flats in the multi-storey blocks as well as a number of properties in the surrounding lower rise blocks.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Grant for his time in delivering the talk and visit, and supporting colleagues from network member organisations, for what was a very informative ‘Get Together’. You can read more about the day here.

On 16^th September 2024, the Scottish Housing Regulator issued a consultation document with the proposed specific indicators on tenant and resident safety and for the appropriate monitoring of the effectiveness of landlords’ approach to managing reports and instances of damp and mould. SHR also invited views on the continuing appropriateness of existing ARC indicators.

A summary of the changes that the Regulator is proposing to make to the ARC, along with a full list of the indicators and the changes being proposed, is available on their website; also provided is a version of the Technical Guidance with the SHR proposals shown in tracked changes.

View the summary on the SHR website here.

We have summarised the tenant and resident safety elements here:

SHR propose to continue to collect the following:

Indicator 11: How many times in the reporting year did you not meet your statutory obligations to complete a gas safety check within 12 months of a gas appliance being fitted or its last check?

SHR also proposes to collect the following NEW indicators;

Electrical Safety: How many times in the reporting year did you not meet the requirement to complete an electrical safety inspection (EICR) within five years of the last EICR?

This is proposed in order to measure any incidences where landlords do not meet the requirement set out in the Tolerable Standard to carry out an EICR within five years of the last EICR. Landlords will be asked to provide a reason/s for any such incidences.

Fire Safety: Number of homes that do not have ‘satisfactory equipment for detecting fire and giving warning in the event of fire or suspected fire’ installed at the year end.

This is proposed to measure how many homes do not meet the requirement set out in the Tolerable Standard to install satisfactory smoke and heat alarms. Landlords will be asked to provide a reason/s for any such incidences.

Damp & Mould

Issues of damp and mould continue to be an important area of concern for tenants. Most social homes in Scotland are of good quality, but where issues with damp and mould arise, it is important that they are dealt with effectively and quickly. Landlords will want to make sure they understand the prevalence of these issues across their stock and the reasons for this. The root cause of damp and mould can vary and in some cases can be complex. But regardless of the causes, mould spores can pose a danger to heath, especially for young children, older people or people with existing skin and respiratory conditions or weaker immune systems. So it is important that landlords have assurance that they are dealing with any reported cases of damp and mould quickly and effectively.

SHR propose three new indicators on damp and mould:

• Average length of time taken to resolve cases of damp and/or mould;
• Percentage of resolved cases of damp and/or mould that were reopened; and
• Number of open cases of damp and/or mould at the year end.

This would mean landlords reporting on the following:

• Number of cases of damp and/or mould that were resolved within the reporting year
• Number of resolved cases of damp and/or mould that were reopened (within 12 months)
• Total number of working days to resolve cases of damp and/or mould
• Number of open cases of damp and/or mould as at 31 March each year.

SHR aim to confirm the revised ARC indicators by January 2025 with the new ARC being in place for collection year 2025/26.

The Scottish Housing Regulator would welcome general feedback on their proposals as well as answers to the specific questions that they have raised. You can read the consultation paper online or download the full consultation package including the annexes by clicking the link above.

The Scottish Housing Regulator has published the findings from its thematic review of how social landlords assure themselves about their compliance with regulatory requirements, and how this helps them to inform their Annual Assurance Statements.

All social landlords are required to submit an Annual Assurance Statement to the Scottish Housing Regulator by the end of October each year about their compliance with regulatory requirements.

The Regulator visited 13 landlords to explore how they assured themselves they complied with regulatory requirements and their approach to preparing the Statement. The visits had a particular focus on how landlords assured themselves about meeting their tenant and resident safety duties, and for Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), how the Governing Body is assured on its approach to financial planning and the assumptions which underpin the RSL’s financial plans. and the review here.

You can read the news article here and the review here.