Farm Safety Week highlights the importance of Health & Safety

read time: 2 min
08.07.16

The fourth annual Farm Safety Week was launched this week with the poignant tag-line  "Who will fill your boots?" Further details on the campaign and the Farm Safety Foundation are available via the Farm Safety Partnership’s website.

This important initiative aims to reduce the number of accidents giving the agricultural sector the poorest record of any other occupation in the UK. Advice and guidance has been produced highlighting the key issues the sector faces and guidance on how to overcome them.

The 5 simple daily messages which are being promoted as part of this campaign are:

"Overhaul your overalls" – wear the right safety gear with a secure chest pocket for your phone.

"Ditch a duff shaft" – make sure your pto shafts are safely covered.

"Act on accident statistics" –  The latest annual report on the causes of farm accidents was released by HSE this week.

"Don’t step on my toes" - protect yourself from livestock injuries.

"Lose a lousy ladder" – make sure your ladder is safe to climb.

Last year 31 people were killed whilst undertaking farm related activities (10 employees, 17 self-employed and 4 members of the public). Statistics from the HSE show that so far this year, 9 fatalities linked to the agricultural sector have been reported in Great Britain.

Ashfords HSE have been helping to spread the 'Safe Home' message to the agricultural community. We have helped our Estates and Farming clients to implement safe systems of work and advised on event safety and diversification.

Ashfords recently launched a unique ‘one-stop-shop’ for businesses wishing to gain support and advice in all aspects of regulatory compliance. Ashfords HSE can support you to manage your existing farm holding or give you the confidence to diversify. Areas of expert advice and guidance available include; health and safety, event safety, food safety, infection control, fire safety, trading standards, environmental responsibilities and security measures.

We can also help you develop robust risk assessments, procedures and safety management policies as well as delivering training and Directors briefings.

If you have more than one site we can offer Primary Authority Partnerships, a government backed scheme that allows you to get assured advice from your regulator that other regulators must abide by and cannot put further burdens on your business.

From October 2017 the Primary Authority Scheme is changing to allow one site businesses to benefit from consistency of regulatory enforcement and the protections from enforcement activity.

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