Safety Notice CEMHD1-2022. Following investigations into dangerous occurrences resulting from failures of industrial uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems HSE has issued a Safety Notice on the maintenance of such systems. HSE states that Information provided in some original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM’s)  standard operating and maintenance instructions relating to industrial UPS systems  may not be adequate to ensure the continued safe and reliable operation for the intended design life.  HSE is calling for purveyors of such equipment to review the adequacy of information for maintenance and operators to ensure they have the latest revision of such information.   https://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/ups-systems-industrial-maintenance.htm

HSE issued a safety notice on 1st February following two incidents which occurred on offshore installations. In both incidents a boom hoist rope came off a sheave.  This resulted in the catastrophic failure of the ropes and structural damage to the crane booms. Both incidents had the potential to cause death or serious injury to the persons involved in the lifting operations and to other persons on the installations. https://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/offshore-cranes.htm

HSE carried out seventy-one workplace inspections around Sheffield and Rotherham during the second week of January. Businesses inspected were in the metal fabrication, engineering, general manufacturing and waste and recycling sectors. Inspectors served three prohibition notices and thirty-one improvement notices.  In addition, HSE wrote formally to a further twenty-three businesses requiring them to improve various aspects of health and safety. In all 65 % of business inspected were found to be in some form of breach of health and safety law.  Examples of some of the breaches found included poor controls of welding fumes and metal working fluids.