This article considers the impact that the Coronavirus pandemic is having on the concept of ‘reasonable practicability’ in relation to compliance with health and safety legislation. In particular, it addresses tolerable risk, use of guidance, face coverings, risk assessments and what …
Reasonable practicability in the age of Coronavirus Read more »
I gave a presentation at the Institution of Structural Engineers Small Practitioners Conference on 26 June 2018. That presentation focused on understanding the CDM 2015 Designer Duties. This post contains the video of my presentation. The slides can also be downloaded.
Concrete structures can be affected by a range of defects and deterioration. These can impact on both the safety and service life of structures. The most common forms of defects and deterioration that may occur in concrete structures, how they …
Reinforced concrete structures degrade with time and exposure to the environment, particularly if that environment contains salts. That degradation can lead reinforcement to corrode, and this can affect the safety and load-carrying capacity of concrete structures. The data from existing research were reviewed …
CDM 2015 Regulation 9 requires designers to eliminate or reduce risks to those involved in maintenance so far as reasonably practical or, if that isn’t possible, to provide information on significant residual risks. Designers may not be aware of the guidance …
CDM 2015 Designer Duties – Designing for maintenance Read more »
The improvement and prohibition notices data provided on the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) web site have been analysed to establish where HSE identified potential breaches in construction projects. These analyses were carried for 2016/17 – the first full year where …
This article discusses the impact of deterioration on the safety of concrete structures. This is illustrated by examples where deterioration has led concrete structures to collapse. The article suggests steps that designers can take to minimise the risks of deterioration to safety and discharge …
This article contains a collection downloads comparing CDM 2007 and CDM 2015 prepared by Dr Mike Webster, along with published discussions on key issues relating to the CDM 2015 Regulations. It will provide insight into and training on the use …
CDM 2015 – Resources available on the MPW R&R web site Read more »
In this article, Mike Webster provides a summary of published discussions on key issues and answers to frequently asked questions relating to the CDM 2015 Regulations.
In this article, Mike Webster provides a summary of published discussions on key issues relating to the CDM 2015 Principal Designer duties. It will provide insight into and training on this new role introduced in the CDM 2015 Regulations.
This article suggests a range of ways to engage boards on health, safety and risk issues. Our suggestions are a combination of ‘nudges’ and ‘shoves’. They recognise the potential barriers to engagement that we identified in an earlier article, and are aimed at addressing …
How to engage boards on health, safety and risk issues Read more »
This article summarises key reasons why board engagement with health and safety risks does not always happen. The lessons from landmark incidents are discussed, and common causes for non-engagement are identified. To gain a better understanding of these causes, we …
Board engagement with health and safety risks – why doesn’t it always happen? Read more »
This article summarises the key business questions that risk diagnostics and risk benchmarking answer. This will allow organisations to decide if either technique would be useful to them.
This post discusses what organisations can gain from undertaking risk diagnostic and benchmarking studies. We have made a version of our risk diagnostic and benchmarking tool available for free download so that you can can identify the gaps in your …
Over the years, I have noticed a range of barriers that can prevent organisations managing risk effectively. In this article, I have collected together seven of these barriers and discussed both their effect on organisations and how to overcome them. …
This post contains a comparison of the differences between organisations with best practice in risk management and those whose practice is the industry average. This post shows that the quality of those factors which influence risk is higher and less …
This is Part 2 of a two-part article, and proposes a solution to the problem of how to assess what factors influence risk in organisations. The proposed approach recognises that incidents are caused by a complex combination of events that …
How to assess what factors influence risk in your organisation Read more »
This article discusses why organisations’ susceptibility to risk is largely determined by the mindsets and behaviours of their staff and the difficulties this causes in assessing what factors influence risk. A methodology is proposed that recognises that incidents are caused …
Why is it so difficult to assess what factors influence risk in your organisation? Read more »
Download a note prepared by Mike Webster that identifies, clause-by-clause, the changes in the Designer duties in the CDM 2015 regulations compared to those in CDM 2007, so making it easier to comply.
Download a note prepared by Mike Webster that identifies, clause-by-clause, the changes in the Client duties in the CDM 2015 regulations compared to those in CDM 2007, so making it easier to comply.
In this article, Mike Webster provides a brief summary of eight key changes to the CDM 2015 Regulations from CDM 2007 and what those changes mean in practice.
Download a note prepared by Mike Webster that identifies, clause-by-clause, the changes in the Principal Contractor and Contractor duties in the CDM 2015 regulations compared to those in CDM 2007, so making it easier to comply.
This post suggests an approach for regulators to improve cost-effectiveness by focusing on high-risk areas to protect people whilst minimising burden.
We all solve problems most days. This post provides 4 reasons why we may not always be solving the right problems and a simple approach to make sure we do.
This post identifies five characteristics of high-performing organisations with best practice in risk management and discusses those characteristics with examples.
When something goes wrong, it’s because a number of factors aren’t working – do you know what factors influence risk in your organisation?. This post discusses a range of examples from high profile incidents and introduces an approach for identifying …
Do you know what factors influence risk in your organisation? Read more »