Shooting UK: Health & Safety

Having read the report on shoot health & safety - http://www.shootinguk.co.uk/news/253317/Shoots_warned_over_health_and_safety_laws.html

How many shoots have an up to date Health & Safety Policy?
As the report highlights, under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, shoots come under the act if more than 5 persons are employed. And this means Beaters, even if they dont get paid!

Add to that the raft of additional regulations and its a minefield!

I'm lucky that as my 'Proper' job requires me to supervise and maintain H&S, I have a reasonable knowlage of the subject so have a fairly robust policy in place.

Shoots should be aware that it is a requirement to have a H&S policy that is updated every year, not just one that was done 5 years ago.

Yes it can be a pain to work through and put in place, but as the report shows, its vital that we as a sport, dot all the i's and cross all the t's

For those who are interested, regulations that are applicable include:

Health & Safety at Work Act 1974
Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
Manual Handling Regulations 1992
Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerour Occurrences Regulations 1992
Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981

If anyone is in the dark (or if ST want to run a feature on Shoot H&S) please feel free to contact me and I can help all I can.

BASC have a template policy which is very good, however any policy needs to be tailored to YOUR shoot. This includes all the risk assessments.