Question: The accident rate of two organizations is different although they have

the same size workforce and produce identical products.

Outline possible reasons for this difference. (10)

Ans: There may be a several reasons,why accident rate is different, such as:

 First of all the criteria of reportable incidences may be different for instances
onecompany may be taking near miss as accident while other may not be taking.
 Also nature of operation may be different for instance one company may be using
old sophisticated machine and other may be using new and protected machine.
 There may be different in managementcommitment on safety such as one company
might have appointed dedicated safety manager and have safety committees while
other company may not have this resources
 The two organizations might be operating in different locations resulting in
different legal requirements. As a result, the organization operating in stringent
legal environment might have higher safety standards and lower accident rate.
 There may be difference in level of competence,qualification and industry of health
and safety matters like health and risk assessment,hazard identification etc.
 One company might be taking H&S incident reporting as threat, as a result
employees are actually hiding accidents while in other company employees may be
encouraged to report accident.
 There may be administrative issues like in one company there is no formal
procedure to report accidents resulting in low rate of accident reporting
 Reward and recognition in one company may also be preventing employees to
report accidents so that they get maximum reward.
 There may be difference in work place layout like space constraint, common passage
for forklift, trolley and human movement causing accidents.
 There may be different formulas and structure for calculating accident rate like one
company including contractors, visitors and temporary workers in there accident
rate while other may be including only employees.
 There may be different standards of safety like one company complyingwith BS
OHSAS 18001 while other may have its own standards of safety which might not be
as comprehensive as 18001.
 Financial and human resources available to both organizations might be different.
Question: A worker has been seriously injured after being struck by material
transported using an overhead crane.

Outline the types of human failure which may have contributed to theaccident AND,
in EACH case, give examples relevant to the scenario toillustrate your answer. (10)

Ans: Mistakesrules

Human errorknowledge

Skillsslip of action

Human failures lapse of memory

Routine

Violation Situational

Exceptional

There may be rule based mistakes like worker moving inside the barricaded area causing
to come in contact with crane or material being moved by crane. Or there may be mistake
by crane operator for violating the pedestrian path or not sounding the alarm before
moving the material or not following the speed limit rule.

There may be knowledge based mistake like a new worker not knowing the path of crane
or a new crane operator not knowing the pedestrian walkway or crane operator not
knowing how to operate the crane or overloading the crane over its capacity.

There may be slips of action like pressing the wrong button resulting in movement of crane
in wrong direction or pressing the wrong gear resulting in over speedy of crane or loading
the weight instead of raising it and to moving the crane instead of stopping it. There may be
a lapse of memory like forgetting to inform workers before moving the material or
forgetting to raise alarm or forgetting to carryout routine inspection of crane resulting in
breaking of rope and falling of load, forgetting to analyses the load.

There may be routine violationslike moving the crane in path of pedestrians, usage of crane
by untrained operators, not caring out routine inspections as per schedule, moving of
pedestrians too close to crane.

There may be situational violations such as pressure from management to complete the
task resulting in overloading the steps such as inspections of crane, usage of crane by
untrained operators, overloading the crane to finish the job quickly, keeping the operators
in job for prolong period of time, or working with poor land level or noise level, not using
tested ropes, wires, and sling. There may be exceptional violation such as in case the wrong
material is moved, replace it and then moving the correct material in quick time and this
overspeeding might have resulted in falling of weight.

Question: The reliability of a safety critical system depends on a single component.

(a) Outline ways of reducing the likelihood of failure of thecomponent. (4)

(b) Outline additional ways to increase the reliability of the safetycritical system. (6)

(a) Several ways may be obtained to reduce likelihood of failure of safety critical system’s
component such as:

 Planned preventive maintenance of heat detectors of sprinkler system so that it detects

the temperature as per design specifications correctly.
 Staff responsible for maintenance of component should be provided with adequate
training so that they are aware of proper maintenance requirements.
 Working within design specification such as a motor used for flammable liquid operation
should not be loaded more than its electrical rated capacity so that it doesn’t burn out
 A rope/sling used for rigging should not beloaded more than its capacity so that it does
notbreak and injure / kill any one present in the vicinity.
 Following the guidelines provided by original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and
operating the equipment as per SOP.
 Providing adequate rest to the system so as to prevent overheating and burnout.

(b)

 Additionally there may be standby component so that life of the component is increased
and both may be worked alternatively.
 There may be periodic testing of component such as pressure testing of gas cylinder.
 There may be predefined replacement program of component, after its useful life, as per
guidelines of original equipment manufacturer(OEM) to ensure that it doesn’t fail
suddenly.
 There may be installation of component’s failure detection system such as cut-off of
boiler at high pressure.
 There may be thermographic exams such as of an electrical panel to detect higher
temperature of cables.
 There may be backup protection in case of failure such as secondary containment in case
a tank fails.
 There may be a warning system like siren when a component is close to failure such as
alarm on low water level in boiler or alarm in case a pressure vessel is getting over
pressurized.

Q.4:

Ans:

Question: (a) Give the meaning of the term ‘safety culture’. (2)

(b) Outline a range of organizational issues that may act as barriers to the
improvement of the safety culture of an organisation. (8)

(a) Safety Culture:

Safety culture means common values, believes, norms, perceptions,

attitude and motivation shared by the team in regard to health and safety.

(b) Organizational Issue:

Several issues may cause barriers to effective health and safety culture
such as:

 Commitment from top management. If commitment from top management is not

right then it will result in poor safety standards, poor work practices.
 Absence of top management representative responsible for health and safety, which
result in lack of top management visibility.
 Lack of consultation with workers which could result in low employee morale and
ambiguous expectation in safety.
 Lack of safety trainings plan resulting in untrained workers performing critical jobs
and causing accidents.
 Not giving equal priority to safety as production finance etc resulting in bypassing
safety to achieve other targets.
 Absence of workers in safety committee resulting in poor communications and
ambiguous expectations.
 Inadequate finance might prevent health and safety practitioners from taking
appropriate actions in maintaining and improving adequate standards of health and
safety.
 Giving priority to other functions compared to Safety may promote a negative health
and safety culture as it will indicate to staff that management is not serious about
their safety.
 Lack of trust among management and staff may become a barrier in effective health
and safety standards
 Q.5: explain the limitation of relying on accident figure?

Ans: Relying as accident members as a measure of safety performance has several

limitations. First reason may be that there may be lack of reporting procedure resulting in
under reporting i.e. accident and nearmises may not represent properly which gives wrong
indication that accidents and nearmises are not actually happening. One of its reasons may
be people not knowing how to report accident. Other limitation is that it doesn’t indicates
how May nearmises actually happened which could turn into accidents. Also, there
members does not given an idea of whether accident trendis actually increasing or
decreasing. It also does not to provide benchmark comparison to find current study of
accident members. It also doesn’t given idea on ill health. It also doesn’t give idea absent
severally of accident and number of day’s employee was out of job. It doesn’t tell frequency
of accidents as relativity of accidents with number of employees.

Question: (a)Jan 2010: (a) Outline the purpose of the ‘organisation’ and ‘arrangements’ sections of
a health and safety policy. (4)

(b) Outline why it is important that all workers are aware of their roles and responsibilities
for health and safety in an organisation. (8)

(c) Identify the issues that could be included in the ‘arrangements’ section of an
organisation’s health and safety policy giving anexample in EACH case. (8)

Ans: Organization:

The purpose of organization is to assign rules responsibilities, accountability and authority

in terms of health and safety such as.

 The top management representative responsible of playing leadership role and

providing resources with regard to health and safety.
 The role of department supervisor such as to implement H & S safety policy in their
areas.
 The role of workers such as to like reasonable care of themselves and others.

Arrangement:

The purpose of arrangement is to classify specific H & S arrangement such as

permit to work system, contractor, safety, safe entering and exits, manual handling,
chemical handling.
(b) Because of following reasons it is important that all workers are aware of their roles
and responsibility.

 To take reasonable care of themselves and their colleagues such as safe working at
height compressed space.
 To share the work load related to health and safety such as PEEs compliance,
lockout tangent.
 To ensure active participation in health and safety matters such as safety committee
meetings.
 To stay updated on health and safety matters such as new process equipment.
 To take reasonable care of safety equipment such as fire extinguisher and first aid
box.
 To cooperate with management on health and safety matters.
 To provide feedback to management on new legislation or new system/procedure.
Such as new emergency response procedure or training requirement.
 It will help to increase employee morale by giving them sense of responsibility and
ownership.

(c) Arrangement:

 Safe system of work such as PTW.

 Compliance of legal regulations such as ILO.
 Focus on safety training such as evacuation drill.
 Site specific hazard focus such as Heavy Ammonia leakage.
 Focus as consumer safety such as in automobiles.
 A logistic company may include training of drivers and safe driving.
 Focus of employee health and may include health, screening, vaccination.
 Target setting such as zero accidents.
 Incident reporting.

Question: A forklift truck skidded on an oil spill causing a serious injury to a visitor.

(a) Explain why the accident should be investigated. (4)

(b) Outline the steps to follow in order to investigate the accident. (10)

(c) Identify possible underlying causes of the accident. (6)

(a) To identify immediate and underline root causesof accidents and to make sure that this
should not happen in future again. To identify if there is any need to review safely policy.
To identify if there are any gaps in risk assessments and if it needs to be revised. To identify
any training opportunities. To take necessary corrective and preventive actions. It may be a
legal and/or corporate requirement to investigate accident. To report to relevant
authorities. To see if saf working procedure and systems are in place and practices.

(b) Steps to follow in order to investigate accidents.

 After providing first and two injured at to restore the normal conditions, accident
investigation should be started.
 Take photo graphs of the scene and such as photo graph of whole scene, photo of
lifter, photo of injured person.
 Take dimensions of the location and draw sketch of the scene.
 Note who else was present in the area.
 Note environmental condition such as lax level at the spot of accident, noise level
whether if it was too much to make lifter horn inaudible whether it was too hot or
too cool.
 Take information about lifters and its operations ,such as training record of driver ,
save working load capacity of lifter whether or not it was working with its limits
check maintenance record of lifter whether or not it was operating with defects,
check load it was carrying whether or not it had of forward visibility issues.
 Check those condition was its slippery was it slopping.
 After obtaining scenario, interview eyewitness such why and how it happened.
 Check reason of oil spillage such as how it spilled, why it was not dealt with quickly.
 Obtain information about injured person, such as his age his training record why he
was present in the path of fork lifter, was he tired, was he under influence of drugs.
 Check organize issue such as lack of management commitment to health and safety,
lack of training, work pressure tempting to bypass safely procedures if there is lack
pedestrian walk way, lack of risk assessment after obtaining all this information, put
it in systematic order, analyze and draw conclusion keeping on mind that purpose of
investigation is to uncover immediate and underline causes and not to fix the blame.
The recommendation should priorities actions, action owner and timelines to
complete the action backed by regard follow up in progress

(c) Possible root causes of accidents.

 Lack of management commitment such as lack of health and safety policy, lack of
resources for safety measures.
 Lack of training for fork lifter driver resulting in untrained driver driving and driver
unaware of site rules and procedures and injured persons unaware of fork lifter
path.
 Lack of maintenance plan such as maintenance of fork lifters resulting in fork lifter
operated with defects.
 Undue workload resulting in over speeding of lifters and possible operation of lifters
in low light and over loading the lifter beyond its capacity.
 Absence of save systems of work resulting in lack of formal detailed risk assessment
particular related to folk lifter and vehicle-human interface.
 Lack of procedures resulting in not informing concerned authority in case of spill
and not cleaning the spill in time.
 Lack of adequate spill control which failed to prevent spill.
 Absence of physical barrier between fork lifter and pedestrian path.
 Poor environmental conditions such as high noise which resulted in siren of fork
lifters turn inaudible, extreme hot or cold weather dusty environment.
 Physical state of fork lifters driver or injured party like being tired due to prolong
working hours, too old or young.

Question: An organisation should carry out a risk assessment before developing a

safe system of work.
(a) Outline the factors that should be considered when carrying outa risk
assessment. (10)
(b) Give the meaning of the term ‘safe system of work’. (2)
(c) Outline the issues to be addressed to effectively implement asafe system of
work. (8)
Ans: Several factors should be considered when carrying out risk assessment such as:

 All legal / national /state requirements such as of ILO Health & Safety
Convention C155 or Pakistan Factory’s Act should be met.
 All corporate requirements should be met so as to avoid corporate audit non-
conformities.
 Person(s) who can be affected by hazards should be identified especially
vulnerable workers such as young people, pregnant ladies, workers with
disabilities etc.
 Factors related to equipment such as manufactures recommendations,
maintenance procedure needs for machines guard interlock, noise level of
machine.
 Factors related to material such as information provided in material safety data
sheets, flash point, flammability, made of material transportation whether
mechanical or manual, material storage condition, quality of material being
stored.
  Factors related to human such as training history skill, experience, age group,
morale, motivations and perceptions.
 Environmental factors such as noise level in the dust level, voc level,
temperature, weather condition found on the day of operation should be
considered.
 Organizational factors such as safety culture, resources for health and safety,
guide lines set in health and safety policy, reporting channel, feedback loop.
 Other factors such as accident history and ill health records, legal requirements,
severely and likelihood of exiting hazards, complain of workers regarding
current system of work.

(b) Safe system of work is the safe integration of people, equipment, material and
environment to produce acceptable level of safety in workplace.

(c) Following issues should be considered when implementing a safe system of work:

 Consultation with workers should be done to ensure that there is no resistance

from workers after implementation
 Training requirement for new safe system of work should be considered such as
number of persons requiring training, mode of training, venue, dates etc
 Training should be provided not only to those who have to follow it, but also for
those who have to implement and oversee it.
 Mode of communication of safe system of work should be considered such as
written SOP or verbal instructions
 The SOP or instructions should preferably be in local language to ensure that it is
well understood by all stakeholders.
 Communication should include date of implementation to ensure there are no
ambiguities with respect to implementation date.
 Frequency of monitoring of effectiveness of new SSOW should be higher initially
to ensure that any issues / deficiencies are timely addressed.
 Workers should be encouraged to provide feedback regarding the new system.

Q.3: why work permit not closed?

There may be several factors which cause not proper closure of work permit.

 Lack of training on work permit procedure resulting in unfamiliarity of workers

with how to complete a permit.
 Complexity in work permit or its system resulting in reluctance of workers to fill
it.
 Lack of management commitment on health and safety resulting as poor
monitoring and supervision.
 Pressure to complete the cleaning work quickly due to which work permit
system is bypassed.
 Low employee morale and motivation resulting in unfamiliarityand lack of
importance of PTW system.
 Unavailability of signing authority for issuance and closure of work permit.

(b) Following factors should be considered for CBA.

 Total cost of equipment like cost of material, insurance, cost,

transportation/fright cost, clearance changes .
 Installation cost of equipment, civil, mechanical works.
 Operational cost of equipment such as motor running, maintenance cost and
spare parts cost.
 These costs should be weighed against perceived benefits such as lower
number of accident resulting in lower treatment cost of workers, lower
insurance premium of workers insurance, lower absenteeism of workers
resulting in higher productivity, to higher employee morale and motivation
due to lower number of accident.
 detection system, location of ……..of fire
brigade vehicle/tender.
Q.4: Body
Quantity of waste, location of waste
 Emergency services- storage area, nature of waste, safety data
civil defense sheets of hazardous waste, recommended
method of disposal by the manufacturer,
recommended PPEs to be used while
 Fire station handling waste.

Access and egress rates of the site,

location of safe assembly point,
emergency contact numbers of site,
emergency response team members and
location /type of fire alarm.
 Waste handling
contractor

 Visitors

 contractors

Type of information

Site route map, site layout, means of

access and egress, location of fire-fighting
Equipment and first aid facility,
emergency response plan.

Locationand quantity of flammable

material stored, material safety data
sheets of flammable material. Details of
fire fighting plan and equipment fire
(a) Why accident should be investigated?

It may be a legal requirement

To identify immediate and root causes of accident

To identify corrective and preventive actions

To identify need to review safety policy

To identify training needs

To identify gaps in risk assessment

To report to relevant authorities

(b) Steps to follow in order to investigate the accident:

Investigation should being after providing first aid to injured

Take photographs

Draw sketch

Make video

Identify eye-witnesses

Note environmental conditions

Take information about lifter

Check floor conditions

Check reasons of oil spillage

Interview eye-witnesses

Obtain information about injured person

Check organizational issues such as management commitment

(c) Rootcauses of accident:

Lack of management commitment

Lack of training for fork lifter

Lack of maintenance plan

Under workload

Absence of safe system of work

Lack of spill management procedure

Absence of physical barrier between pedestrian and vehicles

Deteriorated physical state of lifter

Loss of concentration by visitor

Q: Factors to consider when carrying out risk assessment

Factors related to equipment and machinery

Factors related to material such as MSDS

Factors related to working personnel such as qualification, skill, trainings etc

Environmental factors such as noise, lux, dust level etc

Organizational factors such as safety culture

Other factors such as accident history, ill-health records etc

Q: Why work permit was not closed

Lack of training on work permit

Complexity in work permit

Lack of management commitment

Management pressure to complete the work urgently

Low employee morale and motivation towards safety

Unavailability of signing authority

(b) Following factors should be considered for cost benefit analysis

Total cost of equipment

Installation cost

Operational cost of equipment

Maintenance cost

These costs should be weighed against perceived benefits such as lower number of
accidents etc.

Q: 5 persons who could be interviewed for accidents:

Injured

Eye witness

First aider

Colleagues

Manager / Supervisor

Company doctor

HSE Manager

Trade union members

(b) The language to be used in interviews

Convenient time / date

Mode of recording the interview

Questions to be asked in interview / checklist

Mode of circulation of accident report

Need to focus on “how” rather than “who”

Legal rights of workers

Question: Outline, with appropriate examples, the key features of the following risk
management concepts:

(a) risk avoidance; (2)

(b) risk reduction; (2)
(c) risk transfer; (3)
(d) risk retention. (3)

Risk Avoidance: When company avoids the risk altogether. It is best solution among all
risk management options. For example by taking steps such as substitution of manual
handling by using crane or mechanical means or by replacing conventional drill machine
with battery-operated drill machine to avoid hazard of trailing cables.

Risk Reduction:It is opted where risk avoidance is not possible. When company reduced
the level of risk such as by substituting highly flammable material with lesser flammable
material or by reducing the weight of cement bags that have to be handled manually. Risk
can be reduced either by reducing severity or likelihood or both.

Risk Transfer: When company transfer the risk to outside agency such as contracting out
waste management, arranging insurance coverage of workers or assets etc. It is to be kept
in mind that not all aspects of risk can be transferred and company still retains some
amount of risk even after risk transfer.

Risk Retention: When company retains the risk and funds the losses internally. A
company may retain risk with or without knowledge. A company retains risk when it fails
to manage risk by above three ways or decided not to manage risk at all. A company might
decide to retain risk where insurance cost is higher that amount of perceived loss.

Q: Motivation:

Motivation is temporary and dynamic behavior which encourages a person to do

something. It is different than personality which might be permanent.

(b) A worker can be motivated by:

Involving them in important matters

Monetary benefits

Consultation with workers

Showing management commitment to safety

Training and development program

Providing necessary information and instructions

Representation in safety committee

Allocation of resources for improvement

Effective 2-way communication

Making safe behavior part of annual appraisal

Q: Purpose of job safety analysis (JSA):

Systematically analyze selected job

Identify hazards

Analyze existing control measures

Identify further controls required

In JSA, job is analyzed but not the individual / operator.

(b) Method of JSA:

Identify job to be analyzed

Breakdown the job in sequential tasks

Identify hazards

Devise control measures

Communicate results to all stakeholders

Question:

(a) Outline the role of health and safety legislation in the workplace. (10)

(b) Outline the limitations of health and safety legislation in the workplace. (10)
(a) Role of legislation in workplace:

 Set minimum standards of health and safety

 Helps appointment of competent person in organization
 Prescriptive legislation set descriptive and specific requirements
 Goal setting legislation set broad guidelines which allow safety experts to use their
knowledge
 Compliance of h&s standards helps reduce accidents
 Legislation help harmonize health and safety standards across the country
 Ensure penalties and punishment for violation of health and safety
 Enforcement of standards ensures that members allocate resources for
improvement of health and safety
 Devises system for workplace inspection
 Self-reporting of members helps ensure that performance is being monitored
 Ensures that injured parties have clear routes for compensation

(b) Limitations of legislation in workplace:

 There may be different interpretation of legislation

 Prescriptive legislation may become outdated
 It doesn’t take into account change of equipment, technology, material, processes
 There may not be adequate resources available to ensure that workplace
inspections are regularly done in every industry
 Due to legal language, not all people are able to understand legislation
 Employers may be tempted only to comply with minimum requirements and not
looking for further improvement
 Goal setting may require high level of expertise.

Q: (a) Formal / informal structure of organization

 Formal Informal

Written structure in form of organogram Not represented by organogram

Governed by formal structure with delegated Governed by individual behavior

authorities
No formal reporting channels
Has reporting channels
No pre-defined work procedures
Has pre-defined work procedures
Things are done according to personal
Things are done according to allocated relations
responsibilities
Usually informal communication
Usually formal modes of communication
Decisions are made out of office such as at
Decisions are made collectively in meetings golf course, dinner etc
etc.
(b) Cooperation:

Cooperation means coordination between employer and employees

Nomination and establishment of safety committee

Identification of safety representatives

Consultation with workers and their representatives

Involvement of employees in development of policy and procedures

Setting up safety inspection plan and involve workers

Development and implementation of safety training plan

Discussion in performance appraisal

(c) Negative culture:

Lack of communication

Ambiguities in case of merger / acquisition

Increased workload in case of downsizing

Lack in interest initially in case of employee relocation

Reducing the budget for health and safety

De-hiring of employees may create fear of job

Improper communication regarding safety objectives

Organizational of management lapses may interrupt consultation

Q: (a) Abstract from company annual report

The reduction in accidents may be due to reduction in number of employees

The reduction in accidents may be due to non-reporting of accidents

Reports shows no commitment of management towards accident prevention

No specific measures identified to improve health and safety

Level of compliance with standards / legislation is not mentioned

Graphical representation could be used

Company has shown no objectives and plans for improvement

(b) Number of accidents x 10,000

Average number of employees

Q: Principle of Fault Tree Analysis:

Fault tree analysis is a graphical technique that provides a systematic description of the
combinations of possible occurrences in a system which can result in failure or undesired
event. This method of analysis is probably the most powerful and accurate technique for
risk assessment, as it combines both hardware failures and human errors in the same
study.

Technique of Fault Tree Analysis:

1) Define the system

 Define physical boundaries

 The degree of operator control

 Characteristics of input / output

 Environmental factors

2) Select the top event

 Usually most serious consequence of failure

 It might be necessary to perform FMEA first

 Top event might be fire / explosion

3) Fault tree construction

 Carefully relating all possible combinations

 Causes are placed in logical / sequential order

 Logical gates are used

Use/ Objectives/ Benefits of Fault tree analysis

 FTA is a graphical approach for identification of chances of unfavorable and

undesired event called “top event”.

 It is very easy to understand even for those who have little knowledge of technique
such as top management who needs concise information.

 Once the frequencies of lower level events is known, it doesn’t take much expertise
for construction of fault tree.

 Provides a systematic basis for quantitative analysis in which frequencies are

available numerically which helps understand the chances of an undesired event
quantitatively rather than qualitatively.

 Provides a visual display of how a system can malfunction in terms of fault tree,
such as how in a system oxygen, fuel and heat can combine to cause fire. It also
identified what are the possible sources of oxygen, fuel and heat in such case.

 Actively seeks out failure events. Also, helps in understanding whether or not two
events should occur simultaneously for next level event to occur.

 Points out the critical aspects of the system behavior.

 It is used where lower level events are combining up to cause a top event which is
undesirable.

(b) Limitations of FTA:

Only a person with thorough knowledge of system and FTA can perform as only then he
would be able to comprehensively identify all conditions which can lead to middle and top
level events.

Practically it might be difficult or sometimes impossible to accurately calculate frequencies

of initial events. In such case, a person has to rely on his experience and knowledge of the
system. Failure frequency from manufacturers might not be always available.

Partial success / failure of system is not distinguishable such as a pump can either (a)
operate as intended (b) fail to operate (c) work at low flow / pressure

In case of complexity, important information may be missed

In order to examine effects of hazardous failure, first it might be needed to perform FMEA.
Q: Site operator requirement

Every site operator shall report to local authorities about any hazardous installation (a)
within a fix time in case of existing installation (b) prior to commissioning in case of new
installation

Site operator shall identify all potential hazards linked with installation and carry out risk
assessment

Shall establish safe system of work, selection of material, safe working procedures etc

Identify and implement control measures

Organizational issues to be taken in account such as training of employees, induction

training, working hours, clear allocation of responsibilities, control of contractors on site
etc.

Preparation and implementation of emergency response plans, emergency medical plan

and sharing of same with local authorities.

Coordination with local bodies.

Q: Information to ambulance service

Information regarding location of site

Potential hazards on site

Nearest hospitals

Number of trained first aiders on site

Location of emergency control center

Location of entry / exit gates

Routes of entry / exit

Contact number, name, designation of person incharge in case of emergency

Question: An organisation has decided to adopt a self regulatory model for its health
and safety management system.
(a) Outline the benefits of adopting a self regulatory model. (6)

(b) Outline the limitations of adopting a self regulatory model. (4)

(a) Benefits of self-regulation

Developed by subject experts

Developed for particular industry

Easy to achieve

Easy to implement as it is tailor-made

Employees can easily get used to

Saves cost of audit / certification

(b) Limitations of self-regulation

Limited value for stakeholders due to lack of third party audits

Employers may be tempted to be lenient for compliance

Individual or company interest may be put ahead instead of employees’ health and safety

It may remain unchanged even when there is technological advancement

It may not be covered by recognized standard

Question (a) In relation to workplace behavior, outline what is meant by the term
“attitude”

(b) Outline how media can influence attitudes towards health and safety, making
reference to suitable example where appropriate

Attitude may be defined as set of responses of a person to certain situation, object, person
etc which may be due to his past experience, skills and education. Person’s response may
be positive or negative.

(b) Media:

 Media has strong presence globally such as through print, electronic and social media
 Media can telecast coverage of health and safety conferences, seminars and events
such as Health & Safety expo
  Can telecast talkshows related to health and safety
 Coverage of catastrophic accidents such as Piper Alpha or Flixborough
 Telecasting or publishing investigation reports of major accidents
 Expert opinions on such accidents
 Health and safety related legislation may be published such as Factory’s Act 1934
 Health and safety related good practices
 Can telecast technological developments related to health and safety
 Can telecast public service messages related to health and safety
 Can provide coverage to health and safety global days / events such as No Smoking
Day, Global Hand Washing Day etc.

Question: Extensive repair work is needed to the roof of the main production area of
a large factory. The factory is to remain fully operational during the work.

(a) Identify the criteria that might be used when selecting a contractor for the work
to ensure they have the necessary competence in health and safety. (8)

(b) Identify ways in which the factory management should control the work of the
contractor to ensure that risks to factory workers are minimised. (12)

(a)

 Check competence of contractor

 Check safety policy of contractor
 Check competence and experience of supervisor and workers
 Check safety of contractor equipment
 Check safety training record of employees
 Check work at height equipment / platform
 Check accident and nearmiss record
 Guage their perception of hazards by interview
 Check risk assessments
 Check if contractor has adequate insurance coverage

(b) Precautionary measures

  Perform thorough risk assessment of the job to ensure that associated hazards are
identified and control measures are taken.
 Issue work permit before start of job, covering associated hazards and suggested
control measures
 Depute watchman to prevent unauthorized entry of workers in construction area
 Pre-inform all workers regarding job
 Where possible, try to plan the work out of shift hours such as night shift or off-days.
 Arrange on-site training of contractor workers / tool box talk
 Barricade the area
 Ensure access points of roof are not in walkway
 Share the repair plan with workers
 Ensure contractor has adequate tool box / pockets to carry equipment /
consumables to height
 Inspect and validate all work at height
 Install warning lights for night work
 Ensure timely remove of debris and other construction waste from site
 There should be safe vehicle movement plan to ensure that vehicles that will be
used for removal of waste don’t harm workers
 Ensure contractor has adequate PPEs
 Ensure contractor workforce has toolbag in hand to avoid slipping of tools on
ground which may injure workers.

Q: Range of factors that affect perception

Age factor

Past experience

Individual education level

Safety culture of organization

Management commitment to health and safety

Physical condition of individual at given time such as drugs, tiredness etc

Management pressures

New comers

Poor workplace environment

Poor health status

Q: Formulation of health and safety:

Health and safety policy must be formulated after consultation with all stakeholders

Policy must be prepared in easy and understandable language

Policy should be signed by top manager

Should have valid date of signing

Should be reviewed periodically

Should appoint top member of management as responsible for ensuring health and safety
compliance

Should be made available to internal stakeholders

Should be readily available

Main intent should be to reduce accidents and improve safety

Should focus on continuous improvement

Should be adequate regarding size of organization and hazards

(b) Effectiveness of health and safety management system:

By gauging trend of accidents

Trends of accidents / ill-health

Trend of worker complaints

Frequency of safety inspections and tours

Compliance to standards
Compliance to legislation

Frequency and adherence of safety committee meetings

Amount of information captured in risk assessments

Training plan and adherence

Understanding of policy and procedure by workers

Adherence to PPEs

(a) Identify the objectives of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). (2)

(b) Outline the methodology of FMEA AND give an example of a typical safety
application. (8)

(a)

 Proactively identify potential failure modes of a process, product, design or system.

 Identify potential effects of failure

 Identify action plan to reduce risk of failure

 Document the entire process

 Prioritize the actions for failure prevention

 Identify the failure mode before execution stage

 Reduce the cost of failure and correction

 A structural and systemic approach

(b) Methodology of FMEA:

 Describe the system, its boundaries, scope of FMEA, breakdown the system into its
smaller components and tasks so that failure modes of each task / component may
be identified

 Brainstorming of potential failure modes of each component of the system. Failure

may be partial failure, complete failure, malfunction, electrical supply cut-off, slip /
lapse of operator etc.
  Identification of potential effects of failure of each component to see which failure
mode and its effect is most crucial from quality and reliability point of view. Effects
of failure may range f rom raising of alarm till major accident such as toxic release,
fire, explosion etc.

 Assigning severity number to each failure mode. This severity number ranges from
1 to 10 i.e. 1 represents least severity and 10 represents most severe case.

 Assigning occurrence number to each failure mode. It is basically probability or

likelihood of failure occurrence i.e. 1 is least likely and 10 is most likely.

 Assigning detection number. It tells how likely it is to detect the failure. 1 means
most likely and to detect and 10 is least likely.

 Calculate RPN (risk priority number) by multiplying severity, likelihood and

detection.

Example from a safety application:

We can apply FMEA to a tank containing flammable liquid, in order to identify and
analyze how spill / leak can occur from the tank, which can be in following ways:

 Failure of welding joint

 Failure of manhole’s gasket

 Vibration from allied piping

 Hit by moving vehicle such as crane, fork lifter etc

 Overfilling of tank

 Failure of tank’s level sensor

 Once we have identified how spill / leakage can occur, we can analyze what can be
the effects of each failure and perform risk assessment by calculating RPN (risk
priority number) against each failure mode using formula:

RPN = Severity x Likelihood x Detection

(a) Give the meaning of the term ‘health and safety culture’. (2)
(b) Outline the role of an organisation in the development of a positive health and
safety culture. (12)

(c) Identify ways of measuring the effectiveness of a health and safety culture. (6)

(a): Health and safety culture is the common belief in organization regarding shared
attitude, norms, perception and behavior towards health and safety

(b) For development of positive health and safety culture, organization has to play
important role such as:

 Commitment from top management should be clear and visible. If commitment from
top management is not right then it will result in poor safety standards, poor work
practices.
 Management should lead by example and should walk their talk when it comes to
safety. Management should follow same rules and regulations as they expect from
staff without exceptions.
 A top management representative should be responsible for health and safety,
which otherwise may result in lack of top management visibility.
 There should be appropriate consultation with workers which otherwise could
result in low employee morale and ambiguous expectation in safety.
 Adequate training, supervision, information and instructions should be provided to
workers, which otherwise may result in untrained workers performing critical jobs
and causing accidents.
 Safety should be given equal priority as other organizational functions. This should
also be visible from all decisions taken by management.
 Workers should be given adequate representation in safety committee to ensure
they are adequately consulted on health and safety matters and own the decisions
taken on safety.
 Adequate financial and human resources should be provided which otherwise may
prevent health and safety practitioners from taking appropriate actions in
maintaining and improving good standards of health and safety.
 Management should introduce reward and recognition program such as “Employee
of the Month” to appreciate good safety performance and likewise should
introduction Disciplinary Procedure on Safety violations to ensure check and
balance in safe behaviors in workplace.
 Management should introduce periodic workplace inspection programs to identify
both safe and unsafe workplace behaviors and conditions so that same may be
timely addressedfor recognitions and disciplinary actions.
(c)

 Survey polls regarding perception of risk

 Questionnaire
 Accident / ill-health data
 Absenteeism / sick leaves record
 Results of safety tour / inspection
 Safety survey such as noise / lux level / dust level
 Complaints from workers
 Legal compliance audit results
 Compliance with international / corporate standards
 Health and safety training hours
 Interviews with workers
 Reported unsafe acts / conditions

Q: Comments on accident report:

Time and date of accident is missing

Root cause is missing

It is not mentioned that what first aid was provided

Contact details of eye-witness is missing

Reason for delay in taking to hospital is not missing

It is not mentioned whether accident details are shared with others for learning

Training of employees is not done to prevent recurrence

5S implementation may be recommended

Time to carryout workplace inspection is missing

It should be responsibility of line manager/ supervisor to carryout inspection

It may require revision in safety inspection checklist.

Q: Outline the benefits and limitations of:

(a) prescriptive legislation; (5)

(b) goal-setting legislation. (5)

Prescriptive Legislation Goal Setting Legislation

Benefits: Benefits:

Clear guidelines for health and safety matters Much more flexible and provides room for
innovation
Ensures that all following companies are on
same procedure Different parties can apply this according to
their own requirements
No room for ambiguity
Doesn’t require high level of supervision from
Limitations: legislative body
Same instructions might not be applicable to Limitations:
all
May require high level expertise as it doesn’t
May become outdated if not updated timely provide specific instructions.
Doesn’t let Health & Safety practitioners use Members may interpret it differently
their knowledge and expertise to the fullest.
Members may opt for minimum level of
compliance and still get away.
Question:

(a) Outline what is meant by punitive damages in relation to a compensation award

clearly stating their purpose AND to whom the damages are paid. (5)

(b) In relation to a claim for compensation, outline the meaning of the terms:

(i) no fault liability; (2)

(ii) breach of duty of care. (3)

Punitive damages:

The purpose of punitive damages is to reform or deter the wrongdoer to prevent such
cases in future which caused the lawsuit.

Punitive damages are awarded by independent trier such as judiciary or justice

The nature of loss which justifies the application of punitive damages is not fixed or
precise.

The damages are paid over and above the provable loss of plaintiff and all or a portion of
damages is paid to claimant.

The purpose of punitive damages is not to compensate but to prevent wrongdoer and
others from such action in future.

These types of cases are dealt in civil lawsuit.

(b) No-fault liability:

The purpose of no-fault liability is to compensate the claimant or injured person such that
the claimant doesn’t have to prove fault on part of defendant. The compensation will be
paid from government or insurance agency. The defendant holds the liability even if no
fault or negligence is proven on his party.

(c) Breach of duty of care:

Breach of duty of care compensation is paid when there is breach of duty of care on part of
defendant and that the loss of plaintiff is due to negligence of care on part of defendant. For
this, three conditions should be met (1) defendant owed a duty of care towards claimant
(2) there was a proven breach of duty of care i.e. the person didn’t carry out his duties as a
normal person would do in similar circumstances (3) the loss or injury to claimant is due to
breach of duty of care.
Q: Express terms:

Express terms are the terms of contract which are clearly mentioned without any
ambiguity. A court is not required to interpret in case of dispute.

Implied Terms:

Implied terms are neither expressed in writing nor verbally and are based on mutual
understanding and norms. In case of dispute, court is required to interpret to settle dispute.

Question:

(a) In relation to the improvement of health and safety within organisations,

describe what is meant by:

(i) corporate probation; (2)

(ii) adverse publicity orders; (2)

(iii) punitive damages. (3)

(b) Outline how the International Labour Organisation can influence health and
safety standards in different countries. (7)

(c) Outline how legislation may improve health and safety in the workplace. (6)

Corporate Probation:

Corporate probation is when a company commits criminal offence or manslaughter, it is

required to redirect its conduct. Offcourse, its not possible to send a company to jail. During
this probation period, company has to prove that it has redirected its conduct. It may be
required to review its health and safety policy, arrange training of its directors etc. A
consultant or expert may be nominated by court on its behalf to judge a company’s
performance.

Adverse Publicity Orders:

The company has to publicize its wrongdoings which lead to health and safety violations
liking giving an ad in paper / tv etc.

Punitive damages:
The purpose of punitive damages is to reform or deter the wrongdoer to prevent such
cases in future which caused the lawsuit.Punitive damages are awarded by independent
trier such as judiciary or justice. The nature of loss which justifies the application of
punitive damages is not fixed or precise.The damages are paid over and above the provable
loss of plaintiff and all or a portion of damages is paid to claimant.The purpose of punitive
damages is not to compensate but to prevent wrongdoer and others from such action in
future.These type of cases are dealt in civil lawsuit.

(b) ILO can influence health and safety standards by:

 Establishing international labour standards

 Setting conventions like C155 and recommendations like R164 for member countries
 These member countries ratify ILO conventions and recommendations
 Member countries set their national health and safety legislation in light of ILO
guidelines
 ILO conventions expect member countries to devise mechanism for punishment /
penalty in case of non-compliance
 ILO can influence non-member countries implement ILO guidelines in their countries
instead of making their own standards by learning through accidents which is costly
for human life
 ILO conventions help harmonize health and safety standards of different countries
 Member countries are required to report to ILO about their health and safety
performance and compliance level.

(c) Legislation can improve health and safety at work by:

 Set minimum standards of health and safety…………..

 Helps appointment of competent person in organization…………..
 Prescriptive legislation set descriptive and specific requirements…………..
 Goal setting legislation set broad guidelines which allow safety experts to use their
knowledge…………..
 Compliance of h&s standards helps reduce accidents…………..
 Legislation help harmonize health and safety standards across the country…………..
 Ensure penalties and punishment for violation of health and safety…………..
  Enforcement of standards ensures that members allocate resources for improvement
of health and safety…………..
 Devises system for workplace inspection…………..
 Self-reporting of members helps ensure that performance is being monitored…………..
 Ensures that injured parties have clear routes for compensation…………..

Q: Outline the desirable design feature of controls AND display on a control panel for
a complex industrial process aimed at reducing the likelihood of human error:

 Controls should be kept minimum without compromising on need…………..

 System should be user friendly…………..
 There should be adequate distance between controls so as to avoid accidental
activation of wrong control.
 Adequate labelling of each control to be done…………..
 Labelling of controls should be in understandable language…………..
 Writing of labels should be legible…………..
 Immediate feedback should be provided to user for every action…………..
 Emergency stop should be available…………..
 All controls should be clearly visible…………..
 Arrangements should be made to make the controls visible in night shift…………..
 Controls should be in sequential order…………..
 Controls should be in easy reach of operator…………..
 Any legal / international / corporate requirements should be met…………..
 Should indicate the state they are in such as on / off…………..
 Illuminated display should be prevented from sunlight / glare to avoid
misreading…………..
 Design of panel should prevent it from rain / fog / dew / dust…………..
 Marking on analogue dials should be done to indicate normal and abnormal
reading…………..
 Necessary safety interlocks should be made as per risk assessment…………..
 Where touch screens are used, they should be adequately sensitive and
calibrated…………..
 Question:

(a) Outline the meaning and relevance of the following terms in the controlling
human error in the workplace:

(i) ‘ergonomics’; (2)

(ii) ‘anthropometry’; (2)

(iii) ‘task analysis’. (2)

(b) Excluding ergonomic issues, outline ways in which human reliability in the
workplace may be improved. In your answer, consider ‘individual’, ‘job’ and
‘organizational’ issues. (14)

Ergonomics:

The design of equipment, task and environment to take account of human limitations and
capabilities……………….

Anthropometry:

The collection of data on human physical dimensions and its applications to equipment
design……………….

Task Analysis:

The breaking down of tasks into successively more detailed actions and analysis of the
scope for human error with each action.……………….

(b) Human reliability improvement

Individual:

Careful selection of individual taking in account skill, education and experience……………….

Provision of adequate induction training……………….

Provision of adequate job-specific training backed by refresher trainings……………….

Special needs of vulnerable individuals……………….

Monitoring personal safety performance……………….

Using incentive scheme for good safety performers……………….

Providing health surveillance……………….

Rectification of work-related stress problem……………….

Job:

Task analysis for critical tasks……………….

Design of work patters and shift organization to minimize stress……………….

Job rotation to avoid boredom……………….

Adequate manpower to avoid excessive work pressures……………….

Organization:

Development of positive health and safety culture……………….

Giving equal priority to health and safety compared to other functions……………….

Management to lead by example……………….

Implementation of effective health and safety management system……………….

Consultation with employees……………….

Provision of information / instructions / supervision……………….

Provision of adequate human and financial resources for health and safety……………….

Q: You are preparing a detailed report intended to persuade senior management to

make resources available for the management of health and safety.

Outline reasons for managing health and safety that you would include in the report.
(20 marks)

Answer:

On the whole, there are 3 reasons for managing health & safety in the workplace

(A) Moral Reasons:

 When employees come to work, they do not expect their life or limb to be in danger.
They expect to go back home safely and spend time with their family.
 If they feel unsafe, it will affect their family and social life. To prevent this, it is
essential to provide them with safe working environment.

 When accidents happen, they cause pain. Not only for individual but also for their
family, as the family feels pain mentally.

 Some accidents cause permanent disability such as in case of serious fracture,

problems in backbone, amputation etc.

 Some accidents are fatal. Such accidents take loved ones away from people which is
irreparable loss.

 Some accidents cause prolong medical treatment, some accidents cause fatality.
These may cease source of income for the family.

 Compensation and insurance is not available to all workers. Therefore, in case of

injury or ill-health, the affected individual have to bear treatment expenses
themselves. In this context, it is necessary for us to prevent workers from injuries
and ill-health.

 Injuries may prevent victims to live their life to the fullest and quality of their life is
affected such as in case of amputation, damage to limbs, damage to internal body
parts like lungs etc.

 Some occupational ill-health cases may have irreversible effects such as deafness or
occupational asthma.

 Purpose of managing health & safety is to prevent such unfortunate cases.

(B) Economical Reasons:

 Not managing health & safety may cost a great deal to the company. There are 2
types of costs a company would have to bear due to lack of health and safety

 Direct Cost:

 In case of injury to an employee, the company will have to bear his treatment cost,
medication cost, transportation cost in case he required to be taken to hospital,
doctor’s fees etc.

 In case of serious injury, the company will have to give the victim paid leaves,
compensation and any continual payment to his family until he is able to get back to
work.
 In case he is unable to get back to work, company will have to hire new employee in
his place which consumes time and other resources.

 There will be loss of production when injured person is being medical aid or being
shifted to hospital.

 In case of hiring of another employee, he will require training which will consume
resources such as time and money.

 There will be loss of production as other employees will leave their work and come
to rescue the injured person.

 There can be loss of assets, property, tools, materials, machine parts due to
accidents such as in case of collision of truck and forklifter carrying material.

 There may be business interruption due to damage to production machinery, raw

materials, loss of skilled manpower etc.

 Direct costs can usually be insured.

 Indirect Cost:

 There can be loss of reputation of the company due to accidents

 Clients, customers and contractors might stop doing business with the company as
their own reputation might be at stake.

 In case of injury, other employees would leave their work and come to sympathize /
rescue injured person. This would result in productivity loss.

 To overcome this productivity loss, company might have to work on overtime /

extra shift which will result in extra cost.

 In case of investigation, there will be a cost associated as investigation team might

leave their work to perform investigation.

 There might be low productivity due to lower employee morale as they might be
feeling unsafe after accident with their colleague.Indirect cost cannot be insured
usually.

 There might be higher insurance premiums charged by insurance agency due to

increase in number of accidents.

 In case of legal proceedings, company might be required to hire lawyer(s) which will
incur cost to the company.
(C) Legal Reasons:

 Compliance to legislation is mandatory for employers such as ILO Health & Safety
Convention or Factories Act 1934.

 Failing to compliance of legal requirements may lead to legal actions termination of

license, business interruption etc.

 Government Inspectors have the right to enter any business premises any time,
bring constables with him to assist in carrying out his duties.

 The Inspectors can reach any part of work premises, take photographs, take notes,
take samples of materials, search through documents etc.

 The Inspector can server legal notice to organizations such as Improvement Notice,
Prohibition Notice and can cause short-term and long-term business suspension.

 Failure to comply with legal requirements can lead to imprisonment, punitive

damages, corporate probation, fine, bans etc.

 In order to prevent the above, it is essential to manage health and safety at work.

Question: Outline the benefits of:

(a) an integrated health and safety, environmental and quality management

system; (10)

(b) separate health and safety, environmental and quality management

systems (10)

Benefits of IMS:

 Cost saving for organization by optimizing resources through integration such as

certification cost will be lower in case all standards are audited together.

 Consultancy fees as well as certification maintaining fees will also be lower in case
of integrated system, compared to separate system.

 Unified procedures and work instructions helps in getting all information in single
document which is more convenient than separate systems.

 Common procedures and work instructions reduced the number of documents

which results in time saving and lesser number of document retention.
 Several common documents can be produced such as Policy, organizational
objectives, Change Control procedure, corrective and preventive action (CAPA),
training and development plan etc can be produced.

 Simple and common documents raises employee morale due to better

understanding and make the procedures interesting.

 Integrated system results in integrated objectives for health, safety, environment

and quality resulting in better progress monitoring and equal utilization of
resources such as common budget for integrated system rather than three different
budget heads for separate systems.

 An integrated QHSE / HSEQ team can be formulated which can reach best optimum
solution in case of problems and hence best expertise is available.

 Also, the competence of QHSE/ HSEQ team is enriched by taking on assignment

which they were not exposed to previously such as Quality professionals working on
health & safety matters which is very likely in case of integrated system.

 Low cost and time saving training in case of QHSE such as employee orientation and
contractor induction which covers requirements of quality, health, safety and
environment at the same time.

 Easy retrieval and retention of documents as documents are common and are
available at same place such as QHSE / HSEQ policy of the company.

 One team helps achieve optimum resources by eliminating needs for dedicated team
of Professionals for each system.

 Conflicting documents may be avoided which leads to simplicity in documentation

such as in case of separate management system, there may be different document
retention period for different standards / documents.

 Easy reviewing of procedures and work instructions due to integrated management

system as all work procedures and instructions cover requirement of quality, safety,
health and environment.

Benefits of separate management system:

 Health, safety and environment is driven by legislation and standards, whereas

quality is driven mostly by customer expectations. This can generate conflicting
demands in case of integration. Separate system will help focus on each area as per
requirement.
 Shorter and concise work procedures and instructions helps employees focus on
individual aspects such as separate work procedures and instructions for quality,
safety, health and environment.

 Small audit team required to perform internal audits of the management system
which will save time and other resources.

 Existing systems may be working well which can become complex in case of
integration.

 Each system can be focused and audited separately at convenience which increases
performance and flexibility in the organization.

 Keeping in view the nature of business, all organizations don’t require to focus
equally on quality, health, safety and environment. Separate management systems
help them focus on their business aspects accordingly.

 Separate training plan required for quality, health, safety and environment which
results in better focus on each area.

 Separate management system requires dedicated specialists for each area which
enhance expertise of each professional in their respective area and field of interest.

July 2012:An organisation is proposing to move from a health and safety

management system based on the International Labour Organisation ILO OSH
2001 model to one that aligns itself with BS OHSAS 18001.

Outline the possible advantages AND disadvantages of such a change.

Advantages of the move:

 The organization can go for external audit of its Occupational Health & Safety
Management System, which verifies and portrays that organization is compliant to
the requirements of OHSAS 18001.

 The organization can go for Integrated Management System as some of the

requirements of OHSAS 18001 and similar to that of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

 It may be of the interest of organization's buyers and customers that the

organization is OHSAS 18001 Certified.

 OHSAS 18001 can help the organization improve its international reputation as
being a safe work place by going for Certification.
 Disadvantages of the move:

 There may be additional cost incurred due to hiring of Consultant for

implementation of standard.

 The Certification itself will involve additional cost that will be paid for Certificate as
well as for external audit by Certification body.

 The company will be required to produce additional work procedures and work
instructions will consumes time and other resources.

 Company may need to hire a specialist resource who have training in OHSAS 18001
or may need to train existing resources on the standard which incurs cost.

 The surveillance audit ensures that there is continuous improvement plan in place
for the organization in terms of health and safety and that the requirements of
standards are kept up-to-date.

Disadvantages of the move:

 There may be additional cost incurred due to hiring of Consultant for

implementation of standard.

 The Certification itself will involve additional cost that will be paid for Certificate as
well as for external audit by Certification body.

 The company will be required to produce additional work procedures and work
instructions will consumes time and other resources.

 Company may need to hire a specialist resource who have training in OHSAS 18001
or may need to train existing resources on the standard which incurs cost.

July 2012: Outline issues that should be considered when planning a health and
safety inspection programme. (10)

Information on the specific workplace conditions or behaviours that might be covered

in an inspection is not required.

Following factors should be considered when planning health and safety inspection
program:
 Composition of inspection team such as number of inspection team members,
selection of inspection team leader and members along with their roles and
responsibilities during and after the inspection.

 Competence of inspection team such as their work experience inspection

experience, qualification, areas of expertise etc.

 Processes being performed in the area where inspection is to be performed should

be well understood by the inspection team so that they can identify gaps in current
and expected practices.

 Previous inspection reports and records should be reviewed prior to the inspection
so as to identify if there are any recurring issues which need immediate attention or
to identify trends of safety observations.

 Preparation /review of inspection checklist should be done to ensure that safety

inspection covers all safety aspects of the area which is being inspected in one go
which will save time and resources.

 Mode of reporting of findings should be identified in planning stage as in one-on-one

meeting, via email, inter office memo or presentation in safety committee /
management review meeting.

 Recipients of safety inspection report should also be identified in planning stage so

as to ensure that timely information is provided to right personnel and corrective
actions are taken accordingly.

 Frequency of inspections should be established and agreed with management such

as monthly, quarterly etc.

 Logistic support might be sought from management such as budget, time, travelling
expenses of inspection team (if applicable) etc.

 Agreement of line manager / supervisor may be sought regarding their availability

and availability of area for inspection to ensure that it doesn’t interrupt business
needs.

 Specific PPEs required for entry in area should be considered and same should be
provided to inspection team.

 Technical know-how of processes should be known by inspection team.

Question: The management of an organisation intends to introduce new, safer

working procedures but the workers are resisting this change.
(a) Outline practical measures the organisation could take to communicate effectively
when managing this change. (10)

(b) Outline additional steps the management could take to gain the support and
commitment of workers when managing this change. (10)

(a)

 Management can involve worker representatives and take them into confidence and
those representatives can talk to workers and take them in confidence.

 Management can highlight the benefits for workers in new procedures and
communicate the same through notice boards, safety bulletins etc.

 Departmental meetings may be setup by worker representatives or management to

brief directly to workers about this change.

 Management can also highlight the deficiencies of old procedure for better
understand of workers through same forums.

 Toolbox talks sessions may be used to brief workers and relate new procedure with
the subject of toolbox talk.

 Safety aspects of new procedure may be highlighted through visual aids such as
videos, pictorials, graphs etc.

 Management can tell workers what overall improvement the new procedure will
bring to health and safety in broader perspective such as reduced accidents etc.

 (b)

 Management can identify what are the reservations of workers about new
procedure by face to face discussions and act accordingly.

 Training sessions may be arranged for workers to train them on new procedure.

 Reference to any new legislation may be made which has leaded to establishment of
new procedure.

 Management can give examples of best practices of other similar organizations to

encourage workers.

 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) may be prepared and displayed on notice

boards / visual boards so that workers reservations may be addressed instantly.
 Management can arrange questions / answer session with workers and their
representatives to address their concerns.

 Management can arrange benchmarking tour of other Sites which has implemented
this procedure to convince workers.

 New procedure can initially be implemented in anyone of the department on trial

basis and upon successful, convince workers to implement throughout the Site.

Question: A maintenance worker was asphyxiated when working in an empty fuel tank.
A subsequent investigation found that the worker had been operating without a permit-
to-work.

(a) Outline why a permit-to-work would be considered necessary in these

circumstances. (3)

(b) Outline possible reasons why the permit-to-work procedure was not followed on
this occasion. (7)

Question: Outline ways in which health and safety practitioners could evaluate AND
develop their own competence. (10 marks)

Question: Outline, using appropriate examples, the possible functions of a health and
safety practitioner within a medium-sized organisation. (10)

 Help the Management in formulation of health and safety policy and designing /
identification of relevant matters such as roles / responsibilities of Management ,
Staff, Contractors, Visitors etc and any specification health and safety arrangement.

 Ensure performing of risk assessment of different departments such as Quality,

Production, Engineering etc and help in identification of hazards / risks associated
with these operations.

 To ensure that action plan is in place to reduce the risks to acceptable level based on
performed risk assessments and ensure that the plan is followed.

 Advise Management on the provision and use of PPEs such as respiratory protective
equipment, safety shoes, safety harness etc.
 Update and advise Management on legal compliance, gaps and improvement
opportunities.

 Review health and safety related aspects of new plant, equipment, machinery,
processes, hiring, purchasing of materials etc and make recommendations.

 Advise Management on setting SMART (specific, measureable, achievable, realistic

and time-bound) objectives related to health and safety.

 Design and implement staff training plan of staff on various subject related to health
and safety such as fire fighting, first aid, electrical safety etc, verify effectiveness of
training and make recommendations.

 Help promote health and safety culture in the organization through various
programs such as safety week, awareness campaigns etc.

 Advise Management on formulation of health and safety budget such as capital

expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX).

 To perform internal audits, surveys, inspections etc related to Health & Safety.

 Advise and update Management on recent technological advancement in terms of

process safety.

 To prepare emergency response plans such as evacuation plan, fire fighting plan,
confined space rescue plan etc and arrange emergency drills.

Question: Outline the societal factors that influence health and safety standards. (10)

 Economic climate – Rich countries have higher resources to enforce health and
safety and as a result likely to have higher safety standards and culture compared to
developing countries.

 Role of media in highlighting health and safety incidents also helps in development
and promoting of safety awareness in the society.

 Perception of hazards among public also shapes the health and safety standards and
culture of that society.

 Role of law-enforcing agencies is very important in health and safety standards of a

society as strict enforcement of law will likely result into stringent standards.
 Fines / penalties imposed by government also leaves lesson for other as resultantly
the safety standards and awareness improves.

 Health and safety information available through literature such journals,

newspapers, magazines etc influences the readers which

 Information related to health and safety passed on to children by parents also

influences attitudes and perception towards health and safety and as a result it
contributes to safety standards of society

 Amount of health and safety information taught to students in their basic

qualification also influence health and safety standards of a society

 Globalization of business such as working with peers and counter parts in other
countries promotes awareness related to health and safety

 Workers coming up in a society from different parts of the world share their
experiences and background and as a result shapes the health and safety standards
of the society.

 Inflation also influences safety standards as countries with higher inflation are less
likely to invest on health and safety

 Unemployment also forces to compromise on safety standards as unemployed

personnel are less likely to demand good standards of safety because of their
priority to get employed first.

 Priorities

 Costs associated with Health & Safety

Question: (a) Outline the reasons for establishing effective consultation arrangements
with workers concerning health and safety mattersin the workplace. (4)

(b) Outline the range of formal and informal arrangements that maycontribute to
effective consultation on health and safety mattersin the workplace. (6)

(a)

 It may be a legal requirement

 To demonstrate management commitment to health and safety

 To develop ownership of safety measures amongst workers

 To improve perception about the value and importance of health and safety

 To obtain the input of workers’ knowledge to ensure more workable improvements

and solutions.

(b)

 Appointment / designating safety committees and safety representatives

 Normal departmental or team meetings

 Tool box talks

 Discussion as part of safety circles or improvement groups

 Discussions during staff appraisals

 Questionnaires and suggestion schemes

Q: An organisation is proposing to move from a health and safety management

system based on the International Labour Organisation ILO OSH 2001 model to
one that aligns itself with BS OHSAS 18001.

Outline the possible advantages AND disadvantages of such a change.

Advantages of the move:

 The organization can go for external audit of its Occupational Health & Safety
Management System, which verifies and portrays that organization is compliant to
the requirements of OHSAS 18001.

 The organization can go for Integrated Management System as some of the

requirements of OHSAS 18001 and similar to that of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

 It may be of the interest of organization's buyers and customers that the

organization is OHSAS 18001 Certified, which can help the company in business
growth.

 OHSAS 18001 can help the organization improve its international reputation as
being a safe work place by going for Certification.

 The surveillance audit ensures that there is continuous improvement plan in place
for the organization in terms of health and safety and that the requirements of
standards are kept up-to-date.
 Working in an OHSAS 18001 certified company can be a morale-booster for the
employees.

Disadvantages of the move:

 There may be additional cost incurred due to hiring of Consultant for

implementation of standard.

 The Certification itself will involve additional cost that will be paid for Certificate as
well as for external audit by Certification body.

 The company will be required to produce additional work procedures, instructions

and additional documents which will consumes time and other resources.

 Those auditing OHSAS 18001 may not necessarily be health and safety specialists,
which compromises the quality of audit. As a result, the findingsof audit are largely
based around documentation rather than of actual health and safety practices of the
organization.

 Company having weak health and safety culture might face difficulties in producing
the documents in real time.

 Company may need to hire a specialist resource who have training in OHSAS 18001
or may need to train existing resources on the standard which incurs cost.

Question: The management of an organisation intends to introduce new, safer

working procedures but the workers are resisting this change.

(a) Outline practical measures the organisation could take tocommunicate

effectively when managing this change. (10)

(b) Outline additional steps the management could take to gain thesupport and
commitment of workers when managing this change. (10)

(a)

 Management can involve worker representatives and take them into confidence and
those representatives can talk to workers and take them in confidence regarding the
new procedure.

 Management can highlight the benefits for workers in new procedures and
communicate the same through notice boards, safety bulletins etc.

 Departmental meetings may be setup by worker representatives or management to

brief directly to workers about this change.
 Management can also highlight the deficiencies of old procedure for better
understand of workers through same forums.

 Toolbox talks sessions may be used to brief workers and relate new procedure with
the subject of toolbox talk.

 Safety aspects of new procedure may be highlighted through visual aids such as
videos, pictorials, graphs etc.

 Management can tell workers what overall improvement the new procedure will
bring to health and safety in broader perspective such as reduced accidents etc.

 Management should lead by example and practically demonstrate themselves first

by following the new procedure before asking the workers to follow it.

(b)

 Management can involve workers in development of procedure by effective and

timely consultation.

 Management can identify what are the reservations of workers about new
procedure by face to face discussions and act accordingly.

 Training sessions may be arranged for workers to train them on new procedure.

 Reference to any new legislation may be made which has leaded to establishment of
new procedure.

 Management can give examples of best practices of other similar organizations to

encourage workers.

 Management can arrange benchmarking tour of other Sites which has implemented
this procedure to convince workers.

 New procedure can initially be implemented in anyone of the department on trial

basis and upon successful, convince workers to implement throughout the Site.

 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) may be prepared and displayed on notice

boards / visual boards so that workers reservations may be addressed instantly.

 Management can arrange questions / answer session with workers and their
representatives to address their concerns.
 Question: Outline, using appropriate examples, the possible functions of a
health and safety practitioner within a medium-sized organisation. (10)

 Help the Management in formulation of health and safety policy and designing /
identification of relevant matters such as roles / responsibilities of Management ,
Staff, Contractors, Visitors etc and any specification health and safety arrangement.

 Ensure performing of risk assessment of different departments such as Quality,

Production, Engineering etc and help in identification of hazards / risks associated
with these operations.

 To ensure that action plan is in place to reduce the risks to acceptable level based on
performed risk assessments and ensure that the plan is followed.

 Advise Management on the provision and use of PPEs such as respiratory protective
equipment, safety shoes, safety harness etc.

 Update and advise Management on legal compliance, gaps and improvement

opportunities.

 Review health and safety related aspects of new plant, equipment, machinery,
processes, hiring, purchasing of materials etc and make recommendations.

 Advise Management on setting SMART (specific, measureable, achievable, realistic

and time-bound) objectives related to health and safety.

 Design and implement staff training plan of staff on various subject related to health
and safety such as fire fighting, first aid, electrical safety etc, verify effectiveness of
training and make recommendations.

 Help promote health and safety culture in the organization through various
programs such as safety week, awareness campaigns etc.

 Advise Management on formulation of health and safety budget such as capital

expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX).

 To perform internal audits, surveys, inspections etc related to Health & Safety.

 Advise and update Management on recent technological advancement in terms of

process safety.

 To prepare emergency response plans such as evacuation plan, fire fighting plan,
confined space rescue plan etc and arrange emergency drills.
Question: Outline ways in which health and safety practitioners could evaluate AND
develop their own competence. (10 marks)

H&S Practitioner can evaluate their competence by:

 By annual performance appraisal where management sets the objective and at year-
end gauges the performance or achievement against these set objectives

 By judging / evaluating himself against self-assigned targets or personal

development plan

 By asking feedback from his peers in the organization to find out how peers rate him
in terms of health and safety matters

 By networking with health and safety practitioners in other organizations and

comparing their objectives / achievements against self.

 By checking compliance level of legislation / standards / procedures in the

organization through audits / drills such as emergency evacuation drill etc.

 By checking trends of accidents and number of complaints as reduction in these

numbers indicates improvement.

 By number of major and minor non-conformities (NC) and observations found in

external audits such as OHSAS 18001.

H&S Practitioner can develop their competence by:

 Participating in Continual Professional Development (CPD) program such as one

being offered by Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) or Pakistan
Engineering Council (PEC) to continually upgrade their knowledge base

 Obtaining professional memberships such as Graduate Member of Institution of

Occupational Safety & Health (Grad IOSH) or Member International Institute of Risk
& Safety Management (MIIRSM).

 Attending local or international seminars related to health and safety.

 Identifying the activities and progress of peers / counter-parts in other similar

organization and benchmarking them for self-development.

 Subscribing to local / international journals related to health and safety to get latest
industrial and technological updates.
 Professional networking with other health and safety professionals such as through
Linkedin.com or other social networking websites are also a mean of self-
development.

 Attend professional trainings and qualifications such as those provided by NEBOSH

or IOSH.

 Health and safety practitioner can also perform volunteer work in local community
which will not only help in self-development but also raise health and safety culture
among the community.

 Formal performance appraisals from line manager can also provide good foundation
for career as well as self-development.

 Health and safety practitioners can also develop and follow a self-development
action plan and self-assigned targets to continually groom themselves.

Question: Train drivers may spend long periods of time in the cab of a train and may, as
a result, experience loss of alertness. This can increase the risk of human error.

Outline a range of measures that could reduce loss of alertness in train drivers. (10)

 Provide 8-hour shift duties so as to ensure that drivers have adequate rest time

 Provide adequate number of rest days to ensure that they come to work fresh-
minded and have adequate work-life balance

 Provide regular breaks during the shift by deploying stand-by driver so as to avoid
tiredness during driving which can cause loss of alertness.

 Employ adequate number of drivers to avoid unplanned call-out which can be

demotivating for the drivers and may affect their social life

 Arrange pre-employment medical examination in order to check adequacy of

candidates for shift duties

 Arrange regular health examination of drivers so as to ensure that they don’t have
health concerns working in different parts of the day

 Put in place alcohol / drug abuse policy while on duty to ensure that drivers don’t
use drugs while driving and appropriate disciplinary action is taken upon violation.
 Arrange random testing of alcohol / drugs to ensure compliance of drug abuse
policy and to show management’s commitment over the policy

 Ensure adequate level of comfort in cabin such as adjustable seat, air conditioning,
sun protection.

 Put in place arrangements requiring driver to frequently communicate with guard

or control center to ensure alertness of driver

 Prohibition of use of mobile phone while driving to avoid distraction and hence loss
of alertness

Question: Explain the limitations of relying on accident numbers only as a

measure of health and safety performance. (10)

 There may be lack or inadequacy of reporting procedure resulting in under-

reporting of actual numbers which might give wrong picture and therefore this in
turn might affect management decisions on investment over safety matters.

 It doesn’t indicate how many serious and close near-misses happen which could
have resulted in serious injury / fatality.

 Just looking at these number doesn’t give an idea if the accident and nearmiss trend
is actually increasing or decreasing.

 Also it doesn’t provide benchmark comparison to find current standing of

organization over health and safety performance.

 It also doesn’t give an idea of ill-health cases neither absenteeism caused by ill-
health / sickness.

 It doesn’t give an idea about how serious the accident was and how many days the
employee(s) was absent due to accident.

 It doesn’t tell frequency of accidents and relativity of accidents compared to number

of employees.

 It doesn’t tell about number of accidents caused by legal / corporate non-

compliance

 It doesn’t give idea of how many days were lost due to accident / ill-health

 It doesn’t give idea about adequacy of resources available for health and safety
Question: A forklift truck is used to move loaded pallets in a large distribution
warehouse. On one particular occasion the truck skidded on a patch of oil. As a
consequence, the truck collided with an unaccompanied visitor and crushed the
visitor’s leg.

(a) Outline reasons why the accident should be investigated. (4)

(b) The initial responses of reporting and securing the scene of the accident have
been carried out.

Outline the actions that should be taken in order to collect evidence for an
investigation of the accident. (8)

(c) The investigation reveals that there have been previous skiddingincidents that
had not been reported and the organisation therefore decides to introduce a formal
system for reporting ‘near miss’ incidents.

Outline the factors that should be considered when developing and implementing
such a system. (8)

(a)

 It may be a legal requirement to perform accident investigation such as in ILO OSH

or Factory’s Act 1934.

 To identify immediate and underlying causes of accident so that it can be ensured

that it doesn’t happen again.

 To identify if there is any need to review HSE policy as there might be deficiencies in
HSE policy which might be portraying lack of management commitment.

 To identify if there are gaps in risk assessments and these needs to be revised, as
there may be hazards which might not have been covered in risk assessments.

 To identify training opportunities for the employees as the accident might have
happened due to absence of or inadequate training.

 To take necessary corrective and preventive actions so that recurrence may be

prevented

 To report the accident and subsequent findings to concerned authorities / insurance

agency which might also be legal / corporate / insurance requirement

 To see if SOPs / systems are in place, implemented and effective.

(b) Accident investigation should be started after providing first aid to the injured person.

 Take photographs such as of the whole scene, fork lifter, injured person etc.

 Take dimensions of the location and draw sketch of the scene

 Note whoelse was present in the area

 Note environmental conditions such as lux level, noise level, temperature, humidity
etc.

 Take information about lifter and its operation such as training record of driver, safe
working Check reasons of oil spillage such as how it spilled, why it wasn’t dealt with
quickly etc.

 Obtain information about injured person such as his age, induction training record,
why he was present in the path of fork lifter, was he tired, was he under influence of
drugs etc.

 Check organizational issues such as lack of management commitment to health and

safety, lack of trainings, work pressures tempting to bypass safety, if there is
absence of pedestrian walkway, lack of risk assessment etc.

 After doing all this investigation, put it in order systematically, draw conclusion
keeping in mind that purpose of investigation is to uncover immediate and
underlying causes and not to fix the blame.

 The recommendations should prioritize action, action owner and timelines. Regular
followup of these must be done.

 Check maintenance records, check if had forward visibility issues.

 Check floor condition whether it was slippery / sloppy.

 After this, interview the eye-witnesses such as why and how it happened.

(c)Following factors should be considered when developing and implementing nearmiss

reporting system:

 All legal and corporate requirements should be met related to nearmiss reporting

 A thorough standard operating procedure (SOP) should be developed for nearmiss

reporting that should also define “nearmiss”

 Language in which SOP will be written should be considered as it must be in local /

understandable language.
  SOP should indicate that nearmiss are also to be investigated just as accidents

 SOP should be made as easy as a person at lowest organizational level can also
report nearmiss

 Training requirements and delivery mode should be considered so as to ensure that

staff is aware of nearmiss reporting procedure

 Consultation with workers should be done during development of procedure as it

motivate workers to help in implementation of SOP

 Management should encourage workers for reporting of nearmiss

 Good practices from similar industries may be benchmarked for successful

implementation

 Nearmiss should also be included in accident statistics

(a) Giving reasons in EACH case, identify FIVE persons` whocould be interviewed to
provide information for an investigationinto a workplace accident. (5)

(b) Outline the issues to consider when preparing the accidentinvestigation

interviews for workers from within the organisation. (5)

(a)

 The injured person:can give personal opinion regarding what he was doing and
how the accident was caused, the environment at the time of accident etc

 The Supervisor: can give insight about the job assigned to the injured person, his
behavior / attitude towards safety, nature of job, if there were similar accidents or
complaints in past

 Eye witnesses: can describe the accident and can provide information about those
aspects which might have been overlooked by the injured person or which injured
person couldn’t see or remember

 Department Manager: can provide insight regarding standard operating

procedures of the department and whether or not the procedures were followed.
DM can also provide information regarding trainings provided to the person and
their adequacy
  Health & Safety Manager: can provide information regarding applicable legislation
and standards and if there was any violation of either or both of these

 Colleagues of injured person: can provide information regarding physical /

mental state of injured person at the time of accident, whether he was under
management pressure, family issues etc

 First Aider: can provide information regarding the extent injuries the injured
person suffered and what first aid was provided and after how long

(b)

 Identification of interviewers because…..

 Suitable date and time of interview i.e. interviewee should be free from duty at the
time of interview

 Waiting for injured person to be out of shock / trauma so that…..

 Means of recording interview such as written / tape recorder etc

 Understandable language for interviewee because…..

 Reviewing of documents such as risk assessment, training records etc

 Format of investigation report so that…..

 Distribution of report so that………

 Legal requirements should be met related to investigation such as….

Question: A large warehousing and distribution facility uses contractors for many of
its maintenance activities. Contractors make up approximately 5% of the total
workforce. However, an analysis of the accident statistics for theprevious two years
has shown that accidents involving contractorpersonnel, or arising from work
undertaken by contractors, account for20% of the lost-time accidents on site.

(a) Assuming that the accident statistics are correctly recorded,outline possible
reasons for the disproportionate number ofaccidents involving contract work. (6)

(b) Describe the organizational and procedural measures that shouldbe in place to
provide effective control of risks from the contractwork. (14)

(a)
 Lack of Contractor selection criteria with the Client might have resulted in selection
of incompetent Contractor in the first place.

 Lack of expertise i.e. contractor might not have previous experience of similar work
at similar scale

 Lack of competence in contractor manpower such as lack of knowledge, skills and

experience

 Lack of commitment from Contractor’s management such as absence of health and

safety practitioner in Contractor’s workforce

 Provision of inadequate resources by the Contractor to his workforce for cost-

cutting, such as inadequate provision of PPEs.

 Inadequate supervision of Contractor’s work by the Client might have been resulting
in safety violations by the Contractor.

 Absence of hiring policy with the Contractor might be resulting in hiring of

untrained / unskilled manpower for the work, resulting in accidents

 Lack of safe system of work (SSOW) such as standard operating procedures with the
Contractor or inadequate training of workforce on SSOW, resulting in violations and
accidents.

 Late payments to Contractor by the Client resulting in appropriate provision of

resources by the Contractor for safety.

(b)

First of all Client should have Contractor selection criteria such as checking of past
experience of similar work at similar scale, checking references etc. Contractor should
have hiring policy to ensure that trained and skilled workforce is hired, where required.
The Client should also keep check on who is being hired by the Contractor so as to
ensure that the workforce has right knowledge and experience required for the job.
Client should provide adequate supervision to Contractor work by deploying own
Safety Inspector(s) in order to ensure that work is being performed according to agreed
procedure and PPEs are being used adequately. Client should review Contractors
accident data and investigation report to find out if there are recurring safety issues
with Contractor which needs to be addressed on priority. Client should also review
health and safety policy of Contractor to guage management commitment. Client should
also review working procedures of Contractor to check its adequacy with respect to
safety and identify gaps. Contractor safety representatives should be included in Site
Safety Committee and they should also take part in emergency drills. Safety induction
 training should be given to Contractor staff before start of work such as work permit
procedure, emergency contact numbers, location of safety equipment, site route map
etc.Contractor should be encouraged to have toobox talks with his workforce
frequently. The area of Contractor work should be cordoned off and watchmen should
be deputed to avoid accidental or unauthorized access to work area. There should
system / procedure to penalize Contractor for safety violations by his workforce. If
there are more than one Contractor working at site, there should be clearly written
roles and responsibilities between them so as to avoid ambiguity. All Contractors
should have representation in Emergency Response / Evacuation Team. Site map
indicating Utilities location should be shared with Contractors such as underground
pipelines, overhead power cables etc. Joint safety inspection team should be
established, having representation of Client and Contractors, to ensure that all hazards
are addressed timely and appropriately.Similarly, risk assessment should also be
performed jointly so that all aspects of job are considered in risk assessments.
Payments should be made to Contractors timely to ensure that they continue to provide
adequate resources for safety.

Question: Describe the requirements of interview process that would help to obtain
from witness the best of information relating to a workplace accident. (10 marks)

For an investigation interview, all legal and corporate requirements must be met to protect
the rights of witness. Date and time of interview should be selected carefully and with
consent of line and senior management to prevent callout during interview, preferably out
of shift duty hours. Appropriate location of interview having comfortable environment
should be selected to keep the witness relax. The language in which interview is to be
conducted should be selected and translator should be arranged if required. Interview
should be trained in good communication and investigation skills to ensure that he greets
the witness warmly, promotes and maintain open and friendly atmosphere during the
interview. Mode of recording of interview should be selected such as written notes, audio /
video tape etc. Interviewer should also review the records previously available so that
reference can be made to those records during the interview. Interviewer can also prepare
a checklist of questions to be asked during the interview to ensure that all required
information is gathered in one go. The checklist questions should focus on “what went
wrong” rather than “who did wrong”. Interview should not ask irrelevant or biased
questions.
As the Health and Safety Adviser to a large organisation, you have decided to develop
and introduce an in-house auditing program to assess the effectiveness of the
organization's health and safety management system.

Describe the organizational and planning issues to be addressed in the development

of the audit program. (20)

You do not need to consider the specific factors to be audited.

Management commitment should be obtained to ensure that this program is fully

supported by top management.Resources should be get approved from management such
as time, financial or human resources. Logistic support should be approved from
management as travelling / accommodation / boarding etc.Any previous audit report
should be consulted to identify recurring issues and to see if any particular area is to be
given higher attention. Previous audit report should also be reviewed to see whether or not
previously identified non-conformities / observations are closed. Frequency of internal
audit should be determined such as bi-annually / annually based on previous experience /
results of audit. Composition of internal audit team should be considered to strike perfect
mix of skills, education, experience and expertise. Training requirements of internal audit
team should be consideredas the nominated auditees might be required to have refresher
training on internal audit.All legal and corporate requirements should be considered
related to internal audit such as those mentioned in OHSAS 18001.Standard operating
procedure (SOP) for internal audit should be developed to clearly lay down the scope,
objectives and requirements of internal audit. Checklist for internal audit should be
developed for easy reference and time-saving. Awareness session should be arranged for
team (auditees)so they are aware of what is expected from them as auditee, which will not
only motivate them but will also promote sense of ownership. The need to align line
management should be considered so that suitable time is allocated for audit, during on-
going work and key personnel are available during the internal audit. The format and
circulation ofinternal audit report should be considered by identifying audience of the
report. Sending internal audit report to “everyone” should be avoided. In case of non-
conformity, there should be mechanism to raise CAPA (corrective and preventive action
plan) to ensure that follow-up of findings is made and same are closed effectively.If any
special PPEs are required to be worn in any particular area, its availability should be
ensured. Language in which audit interviews are to be conducted should be selected.
Auditors should be able to understand the language in which documents are available, for
easy reviewing.

(a) Explain the objectives of:

(i) active health and safety monitoring; (5)

(ii) reactive health and safety monitoring. (5)

(b) Outline FIVE active health and safety monitoring methods. (5)

(c) Outline FIVE examples of reactive performance data that can be used to
benchmark health and safety performance. (5)

Active Monitoring:

The objectives of Active Monitoring are to check compliance level and likelihood of injury
or ill-health before it may occur. Its purpose is to reward good safety behavior instead of
penalty after accident. It also helps management check that how far health and safety policy
and procedures are working and if there are gaps for improvement. It pro-actively checks
compliance level with applicable laws and standards such as ILO or OHSAS 18001. It also
helps check the understanding of workers regarding health and safety matters. It helps
identify training needs for workers and management.

Reactive Monitoring:

The purpose of reactive monitoring is to identify improvement opportunities after the

incident of ill-health case(s) have occurred. Its examples are investigation of accidents,
nearmiss and dangerous occurrence. It helps identify corrective as well as preventive
actions to ensure prevention. Its purpose is to identify and communicate immediate and
underlying / root causes of accidents or ill-health. It also help identify gaps in health and
safety systems such as risk assessments and preparation of corresponding reports. It also
provides opportunity to revise / update health and safety policy. It also helps in analyzing
historical trend of accidents and ill-health cases.

Methods of Active Monitoring:

 Environmental testing methods such as noise level, dust level, lux level monitoring
etc.

 Safety inspections of the area to identify unsafe acts, unsafe conditions and other
hazards of different types.

 Safety survey for specific matters such as machine guarding, PPEs compliance etc.

 Health screening of workers to identify any ill-health cases such as biological

monitoring, blood test, urine test, eye-sight test etc.

 Preventive maintenance plan of machinery and equipment such as Boiler pressure

test, fire water pump performance test, cranes etc.
  Random interviews with workers regarding understanding of health and safety
subjects such as health and safety policy, emergency response procedure,
emergency telephone numbers etc.

Examples of Reactive Monitoring:

 Accident, nearmiss and dangerous occurrence data can be benchmarked by

comparing with similar industries of same scale

 Accident rates such as lost time incidence rate and lost time frequency rate can be
benchmarked comparing with similar industries of same scale

 Trend of absenteeism / sick-leaves can be benchmarked and compared against

industries of same scale to guage if this trend is normal or abnormal

 Trend of worker complains can be benchmarked to see if these are in line with
normal industry trend

 Number of non-conformities highlighted in external audit such as OHSAS 18001 can

be compared against those received by similar industries to identify if the
organization is lagging behind in terms of compliance.

Question: A maintenance worker was asphyxiated when working in an empty

fuel tank. A subsequent investigation found that the worker had been operating
without a permit-to-work.

(a) Outline why a permit-to-work would be considered necessary in these

circumstances. (3)

(b) Outline possible reasons why the permit-to-work procedure was not followed
on this occasion. (7)

(a)

 It may be a legal requirement to raise work permit before start of job such as in
International Labour Organization standard (ILO-OSH-2001)

 To identify hazards associated with the job such as fire and explosion hazard might
be associated with hot job.

 To establish precautionary measuressuch as area barricading, pipeline draining and

isolation, usage of fire blanket etc in case of hot job.

 To identify PPEs requirement of the job such as hard hat, safety shoes, googles etc.
 For coordination between maintenance and operations teamso that associated
hazards and required precautions are clearly understood by maintenance team.

 To ensure that job requirements are reviewed at appropriate level such as by Site
Engineer, Safety practitioner etc.

(b)

 There may be lack of PTW procedure due to which workers may be unaware of any
such requirement.

 PTW procedure might still be in development and might not be implemented yet
due to which workers might not be following it out of ambiguity.

 There may be lack of management commitment towards safety due to which work
pressures might be taking preference over health and safety requirements.

 Procedure may not be in understandable language due to which workers might be

unable to understand resulting in violations

 Procedure may be too complicated to follow or unrealistic to follow. As a result,

workers might be viewing this procedure as a hindrance in routine operations.

 There may be lack of training on PTW procedure due to which workers might be
unaware of how and when to raise work permit and what is expected from them
when it comes to work permit.

 Worker might have started work, assuming, as a result of communication gap, that
PTW has been issued, resultantly actually working without work permit

 There may be management pressure due to which workers might be forced to give
priority to route operations rather than safety aspects of the job.

 PTW signing authority might not be available due to which workers might be
tempted to start work without work permit. This is more likely to happen in weak
safety cultures.

 There may be inadequate supervision of work and workers which might be allowing
workers to bypass safety procedures according to their own convenience.

 Poor safety culture / attitudes due to which………..

 Low employee morale due to which………..

 (a) An organisation has decided to introduce a permit-to-work systemfor
maintenance and engineering work at a manufacturing plantthat operates
continuously over three shifts.

Outline key issues that will need to be addressed in introducingand maintaining

an effective permit-to-work system in thesecircumstances. (10)

(b) A year after the introduction of the permit-to-work system an auditshows that
many permits-to-work have not been completedcorrectly or have not been
returned.

Outline possible reasons why the system is not being properlyadhered to. (10)

(a)

 All legal / corporate requirements should be met such as in HASWA 1974, ILO OSH
2001 to ensure compliance and coverage of possible audit non-conformities.

 Training requirements should be considered i.e. those will raise PTW, those who
will receive PTW and those who will work under PTW should be thoroughly trained
by competent person in procedure of PTW.

 Proper SOP (standard operating procedure) for PTW should be developed to ensure
that all requirements are thoroughly covered and addressed.

 Consultation should be made with workers to ensure that when the SOP is in
implementation stage, workers are prepared for it and accept it without resistance.

 The language in which SOP and PTW is prepared should be considered. It should be
understandable by all those who will work under PTW.

 Different types of PTW should be considered such as cold work, hot work, confined
space work so as to ensure that job specific hazards are identified and precautions
taken accordingly.

 It should be carefully decided that who will be the issuing authority, who should be
competent and well-versed with process as well as job specific safety requirements.

 Receiving authorities should be decided carefully to ensure that suggested

precautions are understood thoroughly and job is supervised by competent person.

 Permit cancellation procedure should be established carefully to ensure that

cancelled permits are treated as such and permit cancellation is timely and
effectively communicated to all stakeholder to avoid mishaps.
  Permit extension procedure should be established for low-risk jobs to ensure that
valuable working time is not lost in additional paperwork and working efficiency is
maintained.

 PTW should be included in internal audit program to see if the PTW procedure is
effectively implemented and permits are issued, received and closed correctly.

 Disciplinary action should be considered against violation of PTW, such as if non-

conformities or irregularities are found in PTW during walkarounds or audits.

(b)

 Lack of understanding of PTW procedure due to ineffective or lack of training on the

procedure.

 Lack of supervision resulting in workers tempted to bypass or operate without work

permit to save time or show efficiency.

 Lack of management commitment towards health and safety, resulting in superficial

or ineffective implementation of PTW procedure

 Workers might be forced to start without without work permit due to management
pressures to complete the job at unrealistic timelines.

 Work permit procedure may be too complicated to follow, such as if prepared by

incompetent person, due to which workers might be unable to follow it in letter and
spirit.

 Unavailability of signing authority might at the time of permit signing might be a

reason behind incomplete work permits.

 There can be low employee morale due to which workers might be displaying casual
attitude towards safety, resultantly violations of work permit.

 Lack of safety inspection system, resulting in absence of check and balance system
of work permit system.

 There can be ambiguities in roles and responsibilitiesdue to which signing

authorities might actually be unaware of their roles and responsibilities, resulting in
incomplete permits.

 Non-professional attitude
Question: A new maintenance activity is being planned.

(a) Describe the components of the safe system of work that should be considered
for the maintenance activity. (8)

(b) Outline TWO reasons why a permit-to-work may be required for the
maintenance activity. (2)

(a) Following components of safe system of work should be considered

People:

The workers who have to carry out maintenance should be trained and competent in their
work, having necessary skills and experience. They shouldn’t have any disability which
might become risk to their life during maintenance. Deputing of vulnerable workers for this
job should be risk assessed such as young workers, pregnant ladies etc. PPEs should be
provided to workers where required.

Equipment:

The equipment to be used for maintenance should be intrinsically safe. It should be

operated in design specifications and as per manufacturer’s recommendations. Rotating
parts should have proper guard. Earthing / grounding should be done. The equipment
should be well maintained, free from defects and shouldn’t have sharp edges. Only trained
staff should use equipment.

Material:

The material to be used for maintenance should be risk assessed and safe for use. It should
be sealed in leak-free packaging. MSDS of all materials should be available. Storage,
transportation and handling should be done as per guideline laid down in MSDS. Where
possible, human-friendly materials should be used rather than hazardous materials.

Environment:

The environment where maintenance activity has to be carried should be human-friendly.

It should be free from elements which might be hazardous for health such as dust, fumes,
vapors etc. There should be adequate lighting and ventilation to facilitate easy
maintenance. During extreme hot and cold weathers, provision for comfortable
temperature should be considered. If the maintenance activity has to be carried out in
confined space, appropriate control measures should be in place to cope access / egress,
depleted oxygen level and lighting, via work permit.

(b) Work permit may be required for:

  It may be a legal requirement to raise work permit for maintenance activity such as
in Factory’s Act 1934 or ILO Health & Safety Convention C155

 For proper communication between maintenance and operations department so

that equipment / area is handed over for maintenance in safe working conditions

 To identify and highlight associated hazards and precautions that should be taken
before maintenance work begins such as required PPEs, lockout-tagout (LOTO) etc

 To ensure that required work and working conditions are checked by competent
authority such as Shift Manager / Engineer.

 To keep track record of work being done such as date, time, activity performed by
etc.

A manufacturing organisation with major on and off site hazards is analyzing the
risks and controls associated with a particular process and containment failure.
Following process containment failure, a failure detection mechanism should detect
the release. Once detected, an alarm should sound and a suppressant should be
discharged.

Additionally, in order to prevent an uncontrolled release, an operator is required to

activate manual control measures following the discharge of the suppressant. The
organisation has decided to analyze the risks associated with an uncontrolled
release from the process using an event tree based on the table below:

Process Containment failure and release

Failure and release detection
Alarm sounders
Release suppression
Manual control measures activated

(a) From the information provided in the table, construct an event tree that shows
the sequence of events following the process containment failure AND indicate
where an uncontrolled release may occur. (6)

(b) Outline the benefits and limitations of event tree analysis. (6)

(c) Outline the methodology for a ‘cost benefit analysis’ for theprocess described. (3)

(d) Outline the factors that should be considered to determine whetherthe frequency
of an uncontrolled release would be tolerable. (5)
 Manual control measures
Release suppression

Alarm sounder

Failure and release detection

Release 4

rocess Containment Failure

Release 3

Release 2

Release 1

(b)

Principlesof ETA:

• ETA is concerned with identifying and evaluating the consequences following the
event

• In ETA, main event is called initiating event

• ETA are used to investigate consequences of loss-making events

• Purpose is to find ways of mitigating losses, rather than preventing

Benefits of ETA:

• Enables the assessment of multiple failures

• Easy to understand

• Easy calculations

• Ideal for situations where there are two likely outcomes i.e. success and failure

Limitations of ETA:
 • Only a person with thorough knowledge of system and its components can draw an
event tree

• Partial success / failures are not distinguishable

• Success / failure probabilities are difficult to find

• Addresses only one initiating event at a time

(c) Cost Benefit Analysis:

• Cost-benefit analysis is simple tool for making decision regarding whether or not a
course of action is financially viable or not.

• A health and safety practitioner can justify cost of a risk control measure by
comparing it against the benefits the organization is likely to achieve.

• In the above example, organization will achieve several benefits by preventing the
loss of material itself, ill-health of employees resulting from exposure to material,
environmental pollution clean-up cost, possible fire incident if the material is
flammable, possible fine and penalties from court.

• These benefits can be compared against the cost of taking adequate control
measures to prevent process containment failure, to establish feasibility.

(d) Following factors should be considered when in determining whether risk of

uncontrolled release would be tolerable:

• Cost of material

• Hazardous nature of material

• Potential health affects of material

• Potential environmental impacts

• Clean-up cost

• Possible fine / penalties

Question: (a) Outline the concept of the organisation as a system. (4)

(b) Identify suitable risk controls at EACH point within the system
AND give an example in EACH case. (6)

(a) An organization may be considered to be a system that has interacting components

forming a whole. As a system, an organization has a specific purpose and function.
Just like a system, an organization has inputs such as human resources, raw
material, information, procedures, machines, equipment, tools. From these inputs,
processing is done using plant operation and routine / non-routine maintenance,
time, documentation, utilities, risk assessments etc. After processing we would
obtain finished product, packaging, transportation, wastage, customer satisfaction
etc.
(b)
 Risk related to human resources should be controlled by adopting recruitment
policy and providing training to existing manpower
 Risk related to materials should be controlled by complying to safety information
given in MSDS
 Risk related to machinery / equipment should be controlled by operating it under
design specifications, as per manufacturer’s recommendation and should be
subjected to regular inspection and maintenance.
 Risk related to procedures should be controlled by regularly reviewing them, in
line with results from output and feedback from workers, and should be updated
accordingly.
 Risk related to processing should be controlled by performing risk assessment,
using risk management techniques such as risk avoidance, risk reduction, risk
transfer and risk retention.
 Risk related to products should be controlled by producing human friendly
products where possible and providing adequate information to customers in the
form of product safety data sheet (PSDS)
 Risk related to waste should be controlled by preventing, reducing, reusing,
recycling or responsibly disposing the waste.
 Risk related to transportation should be controlled by insurance, regular
inspection / maintenance of vehicles as well as defensive driving training of
drivers.

Question: (a) An extract from a company annual report is given below.

Comment critically on the suitability of the content in providing information to

the stakeholders. (5)

„The company has done much better at health and safety in the last year
compared to previous years. In 2008 there were 170 accidents that required first-
 aid treatment compared to 180 in 2007, 185 in 2006 and 240 in 2005. This
significant reduction is due to our new health and safety manager and a reduction
in staff numbers from 1500 in 2005 to 1400 in 2006 and 1300 in 2007 to 900 in
2008, which also helps reduce business costs. Fatalities were also reduced from
11 in 2007 to 4 in 2008, a significant decrease.‟

The management team is confident of further reductions in 2009.

(b) Calculate the non-fatal accident incidence rates AND comment on the findings.
(5)

(a)

• There is no management commitment shown in the report for ZERO accidents

throughout, merely reducing the number of fatal accidents is not sufficient.

• Poor presentation of data. This could have been presented more effectively in the
form of pie-chart, histogram or line-graph.

• It is not mentioned that how reduction in staff number is relating to lower number
of accidents.

• To relate staff number and number of accidents, accident incidence rate should have
been mentioned.

• It is not mentioned that what specific measures were taken to reduce number of
accidents.

• Extent of legal compliance is not mentioned.

• Specific actions taken by new health and safety manager are not mentioned. It may
be a result of favourism.

• Budget spent on health and safety or details of trainings organized (if any) are not
mentioned.

(b) Incidence rate = (total number of accidents) x 1,000 / (number of persons

employed)
 2008: Incidence rate = 170 x 1,000 / 900 = 189
 2007: Incidence rate = 180 x 1,000 / 1300 = 138
 2006: Incidence rate = 185 x 1,000 / 1400 = 132
 2005: Incidence rate = 240 x 1,000 / 1500 = 160
The above indicates that year 2008 was actually worst in terms of accidents as the
incidence rate is higher in 2008. The lower accident number is only due to lower number of
staff and not due to safety improvement.

In relation to health and safety, outline the status AND role of:

(a) ratified international conventions; (5)

(b) ratified international recommendations. (5)

Ratified International Conventions:

• International conventions can be used as a basis for setting national systems of

health and safety legislation.

• The adoption of convention by International Labour Conference allows

governments to ratify it and when a specified number of governments have done so,
the convention becomes a treaty in international law.

• All adopted ILO conventions are considered are considered international labour
standards irrespective of how many governments have ratified them.

• Ratification of a convention imposes a legal obligation to apply its provisions.

However, it is voluntary for a country to ratify a convention. If a convention has not
been ratified by member states, then it has same legal force as recommendations.

• Each government is required to submit a report detailing their compliance with

obligations of the conventions they have ratified.

• Each year, the International Labour Conference’s Committee on the application of

Standards examines a number of alleged breaches of international labour standards.

• ILO has adopted more than 180 ILO conventions. One of its example is Occupational
Safety & Health Convention 1981.

Ratified International Recommendations:

• Recommendations are non-binding guidelines, are not ratified by member

countries, and do not have binding force of conventions.

• Recommendations are drawn up by representatives of governments, employers and

workers and are adopted at ILO’s International Labour Conference.
• Recommendations may be adopted at the same time as conventions to supplement
the latter with additional or more detailed provisions.

• In other cases recommendations may be adopted separately and may address issues
separate from particular conventions.

• ILO has adopted more than 190 recommendations. One of its example is
Occupational Safety & Health Recommendation R164 1981.

(a) Outline factors that should be considered when setting health and safety
performance objectives. (8)

(b) Outline reasons for reviewing health and safety performance

(c) Outline factors that should be considered when reviewing health and safety
performance.

(a)
 Business nature of organization………………….
 Size of organization………………….
 Nature of hazards………………….
 Level of risk………………….
 Current control measures………………….
 Severity of current hazards………………….
 Available human and financial resources………………….
 Past accident history………………….
 Competency of workforce particularly on safety matters………………….
 Legal / corporate / international / insurance company requirements………………….
 Any current legal / corporate / international / insurance company non-
compliances………………….
 Benchmarking of other similar organizations etc………………….
 Objectives should be SMART (specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time-
bound)………………….

(b)
 It may be a legal / corporate / OHSAS 18001 requirement to review health and safety
performance
 To perform health check of current management system
 To check extent of completion / achievement of health and safety plans
 To identify reasons in case health and safety targets were missed
 To cheque adequacy of current policy and procedures
 To check adequacy of current financial and human resources related to health and
safety
 To identify legal non-compliance, if any
 To lay foundation for setting next year / review-period objectives
 To measure and reward good safety performance of individuals
 To identify training opportunities

(c)
 Legal / corporate / OHSAS 18001 requirements should be considered
 Accident / nearmiss / ill-health data
 Absenteeism / sick-leaves data
 Number of safety inspections planned vs performed during the review period
 Any legislative / corporate standard updates during the review period and their
compliance level
 The objectives / standards against which performance is being reviewed
 Organizational level at which review will be performed i.e. Managers or Directors level
 Findings of internal audit
 Adequacy and extent of success of Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) plan
 Active and reactive performance measures such as…………………
 Number of training hours arranged during the period can be compared against what
was set in objectives
 Any notice served by enforcement agencies or fine / penalties
 Any complaints from members of public or neighbor organizations
 Any gaps identified in risk assessments during documentation review process
 Results from 3rd party survey / testing reports such as noise level / lux level / dust
level / emissions etc
 Budget spent on health and safety during this review period and budget required for
next review period
 Any unsafe acts / behavior complaints related to Contractor’s work
 Any issues with current infrastructure of safety such as fire hydrant, smoke detectors,
fire extinguishers etc
 An employer wishes to build a new gas compression installation to provide
energy for its manufacturing processes. An explosion in the installation could
affect the public and nearby railway line. In view of this the employer has been
told that a qualitative risk assessment for the new installation may not be
adequate and that some aspects of the risk require a quantitative risk
assessment.

Explain the term “qualitative risk assessment” and “quantitative risk assessment”
(5)

Identify the external sources of information and advice that the employer could
refer to when deciding whether the risk from the new installation is acceptable
(5)

A preliminary part of the risk assessment process is to be a hazard and

operability study. Describe the principles and methodology of HAZOP study (10)

(a)

Qualitative Risk Assessment:

Qualitative risk assessment means that the data is not represented numerically e.g.
reports and commentaries which although useful are difficult to treat as an accurate
measure. In this case, no actual measurement is involved. Qualitative risk assessments
are based entirely on judgment, opinion and experience including approved guidance
rather than on measurements. It attempts to calculate probabilities or frequencies of
specific event scenarios. Examples are low risk, medium risk, high risk, tolerable risk,
intolerable risk etc.

Quantitative Risk Assessment:

Quantitative means that the data describes number e.g. the number of accident
reported. In such a case we can see whether there has been an improvement or a
reduction in standard. In quantitative risk assessment, a measurement of magnitude is
involved. Examples are risk scores which may range from 1 to 25 on 5 x 5 risk matrix or
a dust concentration of 0.01 mg/m3 in an area.

(b) External sources of information:

 Legislation
 Insurance company standards
 Scientific developments
 Internet
 Media
  Pressure groups
 NGOs
 Enforcement agencies / Government inspectors

(c ) Principles of HAZOP

Book, Unit A, Element 4, page 4-15