Does your organisation have an effective electrical safety management system? It’s a risky business if it doesn’t! 674 cases of safety non-compliance were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive, an Environmental Health Officer or Procurator Fiscal during 2013-14, with a 94% success rate.

These damning statistics paint a clear case for the need for all organisations to address their electrical safety management, says Terry Keenan, Senior Consultant at Prescient Associates. “Many organisations do not have effective electrical safety management systems. Most would have policy statements but they do not have the range of appropriate procedures that should underpin them.

Lack of electrical safety knowledge presents organisations with serious corporate governance risks. These risks may be of a financial nature or, in the case of injury or death, prosecution of directors in the courts leading to custodial sentences.”

 

Practical tools to help you improve your electrical safety management

Many organisations will benefit from the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Code of Practice for Electrical Safety Management. Published in 2013, it’s a practical tool to help organisations of all sizes manage their electrical safety in a systematic way. Clear structured guidance will aid responsible personnel in understanding how to manage the risks associated with an electrical system.

Those responsible for electrical safety in their place of work are also invited to sign up for the accompanying Electrical Safety Management course, to be held next on 4-5 November in Birmingham.

 

Key learning outcomes from the course include:

 

  • Discover how to audit your building’s risk from specialist tutors, including a former HSE principal inspector – avoid expensive consultant fees, audit fees and costly electrical incidents
  • Gain expert understanding through interactive sessions, to ensure that you actively reduce the risk of workplace accidents
  • Consider the importance of all aspects of the electrical safety system, such as policy, procedure and people
  • Acquire confidence in applying the Code of Practice for Electrical Safety Management’s structured approach
  • You will also hear lots of examples and case studies to help you put the principles into a practical context

 

Don’t be the person who might have prevented an accident!

Terry Keenan will tutor the course alongside Bill Bates, a former Principal Health and Safety Executive Inspector with over 20 years of investigating electrical safety breaches. Bill says:

“It’s important that everyone who looks after the building should know how to look after electrical safety. There are risks and consequences of an incident on the company, injured person, other workers, families, members of public and you.

Directors and managers can be jailed; large fines and costs can affect the organisation. That’s before we start on the other consequential costs and psychological damage.”

So make sure that you are not that person who saw a potential hazard and looked the other way: ensure you are properly equipped to manage your building’s electrical safety in a pro-active way. The risks can be managed.

 

How to book your place at the Electrical Safety Management Course

Next dates: 4 – 5 November 2015

Location: IET Birmingham: Austin Court, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1438 765 650/657

Web: http://conferences.theiet.org/electrical-course/index.cfm?origin=industrial-compliance-article