Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Introduction to Fire Safety Management
➤ Restrictions on equipment:
➤ Type and use
➤ Loans
➤ Hire
➤ Requirements for maintenance of equipment
➤ Control of hazardous substances
➤ Housekeeping and site cleanliness/tidiness
➤ Storage requirements or restrictions
➤ Welfare arrangements
➤ Accident reporting and investigation procedures –
the client should know as soon as possible of any
unsafe event on their site
➤ Permit to work procedures to be followed
➤ Sanctions which may be imposed in the event of
poor performance.
During the contract works the client should exercise suffi
cient monitoring of the contractor’s activities to ensure
compliance with the conditions. Again, the extent of the
monitoring will be dictated by the scope of the work and
the degree of risk inherent in it. The monitoring arrangements
may, therefore, range between simple observation
of the contractor’s activities at one end of the scale,
to formal inspection and monitoring procedures at the
other. The client would need to determine the extent of
the monitoring activities they wish to employ at the planning
stage and inform all internal personnel involved of
the procedures.
Many of the potential problems during the project
works can be avoided by establishing effective
communication channels between all of the parties
involved in the works. Once again, the type and extent
of communications established would depend on the
nature of the project, but the communication channels
which may be needed would include accident/incident
reporting procedures, to ensure the client is fully aware
of all accidents and dangerous occurrences.
8.4.13 Performance review
In order to confi rm the contractor has in fact carried out
the work to a satisfactory standard and met the safety
conditions, the client will need a formal procedure for
reviewing the performance of the contractor against the
contract specifi cation and conditions.
In the case of the safety conditions of the contract,
this will involve both effective monitoring of the work in
progress and a formal review on completion of the work.
Monitoring the contractor’s performance
As already stated, the degree of monitoring required
would be dictated by the nature of the work. However,
no matter how simple or low risk the work may be there
will always be a need for monitoring in some form. The
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monitoring may be carried out by the project management
team or by the local staff in the area of the works.
In either case the staff carrying out the monitoring
will need access to information regarding the extent of
the work to be carried out and the methods of work to
be followed in order to properly judge the actions of the
contractor. This may require the staff given the task of
overseeing the work to be provided with copies of the
contractor’s method statements.
The procedure should include reporting channels for
non-compliance issues and formal feedback of performance
standards.
All client staff should be encouraged to observe the
activities of contractors and report any circumstances
they feel to be unsafe to the relevant person within their
business area.
Formal review
On completion of the works, or at predetermined
periods during contracts of long duration, the client
should carry out a formal review of the performance of
the contractor against the requirements of the contract
and their own method statements.
This should include the health and safety performance
of the contractor as well as the technical aspects
of the works.
The formal review of performance should be used
in determining the competence of the contractor to
continue the contract and when letting future contracts.
8.4.14 Electrical and gas supplies, installations
and equipment
As with all electrical supplies and installations those
relating to construction operations should be installed
in accordance with the IEE Wiring Regulations.
Arrangements should be established that all contractors
on site ensure that their electrical equipment is portable
appliance tested in accordance with HSE’s guidelines
in HSG141. The frequency of test differs from that in an
offi ce, hotel, etc. environment in that the arduous environment
in which the equipment is used reduces the time
frames between tests as detailed in Table 8.4.
Care must also be taken in terms of routing cables
and the provision of temporary electrical supplies to
ensure that they are kept free from water and plant/
vehicle movements.
Temporary lighting, particularly halogen units,
should be installed and located away from combustible/
fl ammable materials. Ideally, any electrical plugs should
be removed when not in use.
The control of use and installation of gas supplies
on a construction site must also adhere to the same
requirements as those on permanent sites. Installation
must be by a CORGI registered gas fi tter and it is