Health and safety update for businesses
Thursday, March 6 2008
Safe and green working practices and updated health and safety legislation were the focus of a free event for Scottish Borders construction companies recently.
Around 90 representatives from local businesses attended the event, organised by Scottish Borders Council and The Borders Construction Industry Forum.
There was a series of presentations from industry experts and a chance for informal networking.
Speakers included Convener of the Council, Councillor Alasdair Hutton; Gordon McLelland of the Health and Safety Executive; Bill Ferguson of SCAFTEC Ltd and Fiona Whyte of the Waste Aware construction programme.
Charlotte Waugh of the BCIF said: “Following recent site visits by the Health and Safety Executive to the Borders, which resulted in several prohibition notices, the BCIF and the Council wanted to help the local construction industry to meet new legislation requirements.”
Councillor Alasdair Hutton added: “Employers must demonstrate that they are complying with health and safety regulations and that their employees are trained to the required standard to get on the tender lists for work. So business owners are under considerable pressure to stay up to date with the regulations.
“We hope that this event helped to ease that pressure by providing useful information and an idea of where they may need to make improvements. We were very pleased with the great turnout and the enthusiasm of the participants.”
Unified Solutions.