The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a new enforcement-led campaign to reduce the unacceptably high number of fatal and serious injuries that occur in manufacturing industries. This is to be a three-year, nationwide campaign in which HSE inspectors will target scrap metal, rubber, paper and wood industries to ensure that correct procedures are in place for working on machinery.

According to the HSE, during the past three years over 40 people have died as a result of incidents in the manufacturing sector, most commonly when cleaning machinery blockages or carrying out running repairs without the correct safeguards in place. In the eight years from 1996/97 to 2003/04 there were 402 fatal injuries to workers and 80 were due to contact with moving machinery. The HSE points out that the risk of serious or fatal injury is reduced if isolation and lock-off procedures are properly managed to secure machinery and ensure there is no power feed to the equipment.

The new campaign aims to: raise awareness about the risks and standards required for safe isolation and lock-off; ensure - through formal enforcement - that robust isolation and lock-off procedures are implemented; and ensure that employers already have, or put in place, sound risk control systems for managing these procedures.

Chris Flint, from the HSE's Manufacturing Sector, commented: "Machines still kill people. HSE inspectors all too regularly investigate fatalities at machinery. It's not as if the risks of moving machinery are new - people need to stop and think before they work on a machine. It is not enough for managers providing safeguards and introducing a power isolation and lock off procedure and assuming employees will follow it. People need to be carefully trained in the procedure and supervised by a competent manager. Senior management must carry out regular checks to confirm the procedure is always followed. Anything less and people will continue to be killed."

The questions that inspectors will be raising with companies are being shared with relevant trade associations and their members, and are available to anyone else interested in checking their own standards before an inspector visits. Copies of the questionnaire can be requested from Anne Rayner at the HSE (or telephone 0113 283 4354).

Procter Machine Guarding has a FREE Risk Assessment Calculator available for helping companies to check the safety of their machinery in line with the requirements of PUWER 98 - which will help to ensure adequate safeguards are in place prior to any HSE inspection.

Click to download the Risk Assessment Calculator (requires registration) or, if you prefer, you can request a copy by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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