PORT OF TYNE ANNUAL REVIEW 2012

ANNUAL REVIEW 2012HEALTH & SAFETY60%REDUCTION INREPORTABLE INJURIESSTRIVING TO CREATE THESAFEST POSSIBLE WORKINGENVIRONMENT CONTINUESTO BE THE PORT’S NUMBERONE PRIORITY.49%REDUCTION IN WORKINGDAYS LOST TO INJURYFollowing the successful achievementof the internationally recognised healthand safety standard OHSAS: 18001certification in February 2012, thePort has continued its focus on drivingdown the level of incidents and injuriestaking place. A major internalcommunications campaign has helpedto drive home the message to staffabout the importance of the higheststandards of health and safetypractice in the workplace and thenumber of working days lost to injuryfell by 49%.The level of injuries reportable tothe Health and Safety Executive andthe Maritime and Coastguard Agencyfell from ten to four in 2012.However some of this reductionis as a result of the definition ofa reportable injury increasing from‘over three days’ to ‘over seven days’during the year. Using the previousreporting criteria there would havebeen seven reportable injuries in 2012.The other favourable statistic isthat the level of ‘near misses’ as aproportion of incidents rose to 58 –a positive indicator. The Port remainscommitted to maintaining the pressureon employees and other users of thePort to become even more health andsafety aware so that the statisticscontinue to improve year on year.Any incident or injury is simply onetoo many.The Port is also committed to followingthe guidelines within the Port MarineSafety Code, which has been developedto improve safety in UK ports andto enable harbour authorities such asthe Port to manage marine operationsto nationally agreed standards.It provides the standard againstwhich the policies, proceduresand the performance of harbourauthorities can be measured.The Port of Tyne’s compliance withthe Code is assured by the operationand audit, both internal and external,of the Port’s Marine SafetyManagement System.23