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UK News - Breaking news in the field of health and safety
New H&S complaints handling pilot trialled in N Wales
A new pilot health and safety complaints handling system is being given a 6- week run in North Wales.
From this week (22nd January 2007), Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham local authorities will take part in the pilot, implementing a system whereby complaints normally received by the respective environmental health departments for those local authorities will be handled by 1 office, which will then stream them to the relevant local authority or to the HSE if it is the enforcing authority for the matter.
Comment:
"Directing all complaints to 1 central point has several advantages. It will reduce the time specialist environmental health officers spend dealing with calls, which means they will have more time to spend on proactively improving health and safety in the workplace.
Also, many callers may not be aware of which matters are the responsibility of the local authority and which matters fall to the HSE. The central contact point will be able to refer matters onto the relevant authority, and ensure complaints are directed to the appropriate department. This pilot is one of many partnership projects between HSE and local authorities in North Wales." - HSE Director for Wales.
"The 3 local authorities will take it in turn to operate the central point of contact, starting with Flintshire, and we are confident that this short trial will demonstrate some real benefits for the authorities and for the public.
If successful, we hope that the pilot could be extended to include other local authorities in Wales, with the eventual goal of setting up a freephone telephone service similar to that operated by trading standards officers in Wales.
For this initial pilot though, members of the public wishing to make a complaint or provide information about a health and safety issue can call their local authority and the details will be passed on directly to the relevant organisation for action." - Chair of the North Wales Health and Safety Task Group.
23.01.07
