HSE is visiting farms across Great Britain throughout winter 2023 and into Spring 2024 and inspections will focus on the main causes of death and serious injury in farming, including falls from height. Autumn and Winter are traditionally a time when farms may need to carry out building maintenance; e.g. repair leaking roofs, or replace damaged roof sheeting or repair storm damage. Â Before carrying out any work at height, stop and think: avoid work at height wherever possible. Do as much as you can from the ground, e.g. use extending equipment to clear gutters avoid doing the work yourself. Use a professional contractor with the knowledge, skills, equipment and experience to safely work at height on buildings, roofs and structures on the rare occasions where roof work or building maintenance at height cannot be avoided or done by competent contractors or specialist professionals, make sure the work is planned and carried out by people with the right training and equipment â for example, trained and experienced people using a mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) or scaffoldÂ
donât be tempted to use the wrong equipment. Being lifted on the forks or bucket of a telehandler or fork lift truck is illegal. As is walking or working on fragile roof materials Remember that fragile materials should have prominent warning signs to alert anyone working in the vicinity.  Unsafe work at height really is not worth the risk. Make sure that work at height risks are controlled on your farm.  Find out more on our website at the following links: Agriculture: Preventing falls What a good farm looks like The Rural Round-up podcast is produced by Scotland's Farm Advisory Service in association with the Scottish Government. The latest episode is a spotlight on farm health and safety, and features HSE Inspector Kathy Gostickâs advice on keeping safe in agriculture.  Listen to the podcast HSEâs Pesticide Enforcement Officers (PEOs) will begin a programme of visits to farms from November 2023. These visits will be primarily selected from crop and arable (plus protected crops) farms of 150 acres and over who are not currently registered under the Official Controls (Plant Protection Products) Regulations 2020 (OCRPPPR) and have not been visited by HSE in the last 5 years.  The visit will focus on the management of pesticides on farm, considering both storage and use arrangements.  Where issues of non-compliance are identified, advice will be given in the form of verbal and/or written advice, and in the most serious of cases, enforcement notices may be served to set a specific timescale for remedial action to be taken. There will be no charge for these visits.  Further guidance is available on: PEO visits registration under OCRPPPR 25 September marked the start of National Inclusion Week 2023 and this yearâs theme was 'take action, make impact'. HSE published non-statutory guidance, a set of simple core principles, which will help employers create workplaces that are safe and supportive to enable disabled workers or workers with long-term health conditions to thrive.  Our Talking Toolkit will help employers and managers apply these core principles and includes questions you can use to start practical conversations with workers.  We encourage you to think about your workplace and really consider the support available to colleagues and workers. You can also: visit theâ¯Work Right for Everyone campaign website read our latest news article  listen to HSE'sâ¯Disability in the Workplace podcast |
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