Health and Safety Flashcards
What is the key RICS paper on H&S?
RICS Guidance Note Surveying Safely – Health and safety principles for property professional 2018
What is covered in surveying safely 2018?
RAWHSF
Section 1: Responsibilities for members and firms
Section 3: Assessing hazards and controlling risks
Section 4: RICS members’ places of work
Section 5: Occupational hygiene and health
Section 6: Visiting premises or sites
Fire safety
What are the responsbilities for RICS firms under surveying safely?
RICS firms must provide
1) A safe working environment
2) Safe work equipment
3) Safe systems of work
4) Competent staff
- Firms should have management practices in place to identify/manage/reduce foreseeable risks
Who is responsible for the safety of a MRICS?
Surveying safely 2018 sets out the ‘safe person’ concept: each individual assumes individual behavioural responsibility for their own/colleagues/others H&S at work
What are the steps for a risk assessment?
IIERR
1) Identify the hazards
2) Identify who might be harmed and how?
3) Evaluate and decide on precautions
4) Record findings and implement them
5) Review and update
6) Advise those affected that it is in place
How should risks be dealt with?
1) Elimination
2) Substitution
3) Engineering controls (e.g. ventilation shafts, cherry picker not scaffolding)
4) Administrative controls (e.g. rotate staff, prohibit mobile phones, additional signs)
5) PPE
When you visit a site or premises, what do you need to consider?
Travel (plan ahead, don’t drive too long, can you park nearby?)
2) Lone working (JLL requirements, check ins, if you didn’t come back, who would know?)
3) Property condition (site rules, PPE needed, unsafe/damaged?)
4) Occupation (are tenants aware, access requirements)
5) Activity (what is happening on the site – fumes, vehicle movements animals etc)
6) Site rules (e.g. emergency, inductions)
7) Roofs (Do you need to go up and is it safe?)
8) Diseases (chemical, faecal, vermin, food preparation on site?)
9) Special access and risks (e.g. abseiling/underground, confined spaces)
10) Equipment (disto, PPE, ladders, cherry pickers needed?)
11) Environmental (rain, snow etc?)
12) Personal matters (pregnant, vertigo, fitness issues?)
What guidance applies to H&S of sales and lettings agents
RICS Guidance Note Health and Safety for Property Managers 2016
What are the obligations of a sales/lettings agent?
Agents have a common duty of care to prospective purchasers and vendor to advise and inform their physical safety
- Agent should communicate defects to viewers and provide statutory information
- If damage occurs during a viewing -> inform the vendor or agent may be liable
- Agent has no obligation to maintain the property or inform for defects / try to predict every risk but:
i. Has a moral obligation to inform vendor/purchaser of defects
ii. Inform viewers of potential risks -> don’t take if there is a risk
What statutory obligations for H&S are there?
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
What duty does a firm have under the H&S etc 1974 act?
“Duty of employers to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees”
What if you break the rules of the H&S etc 1974 act? Who polices it?
Health and Safety Executive
Criminal offence with fines and/or imprisonment of 6 months
What must a firm actually do under the H&S etc act?
1) Undertake, record and review risk assessments (1999 legislation)
2) Report injuries/dangerous occurrences to HSE (1995 legislation)
3) Hold detailed H&S information on site
What is a risk assessment?
Both within H&S etc 1974 and RICS Surveying Safely 2018
1) Identify hazards
2) Identify who is at risk from the hazard
3) Evaluate risk – likelihood and severity of potential accidents
4) Record the findings
5) Regularly review
What is the Equality Act 2010’s purpose? What is the main point?
To consolidate discrimination law and provide protection against discrimination and inequality
Main point is it makes in unlawful to discriminate or victimise a person (through management, sales/lettings process etc)
