PPD SHE Committee

Europe/London

PPD SHE Management Committee – 12th November 2020 – Conducted via Zoom

 

 

Present: John Matheson, Garth Harris, Anthony Murphy, Maurits van der Grinten (PPD DSC), Dave Newbold (Chair & PPD Director), Terry Cornford (Secretary)

 

Apologies: Manny Olaiya

 

Pre-meeting discussion re working at home and self-assessment of work station at home. General agreement that following the advice and using your own common sense to make sure you are comfortable, take regular breaks etc. is the best way forward.

 

Actions from Last Meeting 18th August 2020

 

  1. Julie to provide core syllabus for non-technical manager course, the link to training catalogue, and suggestions for health and well-being event.

Completed and information added to Indico page.

 

  1. MvdG Assemble SHE requirements and documentation for new starters in a single location.

Terry and Maurits have discussed and information has been gathered. Will be added to Information for Starters.

 

  1. MvdG Ensure staff complete mandatory H & S training.

Staff have responded to reminders about completing mandatory training, not 100% yet but at 95% complete. Dave as department head is being chased to get all training complete. Staff should have zero excuse for not completing training. Link to APR mid-term discussions coming up. Maurits will send lists of training not completed to division heads.

 

  1. MvdG Health & Wellbeing event to be arranged for PPD staff.

Still outstanding. Maurits will ask Debbie to organise.

 

  1. MvdG propose input to PPD SHE risk register at next PPD SHE meeting.

See later in minutes.

 

  1. MvdG Safety Tour training to be updated for relevant staff

Ongoing

 

Matters Arising

 

  • PPD SHE Risk Register:

 

Input to RAL SHE group due by end of calendar year.

 

  • Covid 19 and return to work:

 

Facilitating in person meetings, CR 25 use.

 

Level 3 operations – working well and well established. Online booking system working.

No office sharing, even between occupants of the same household. Avoiding staff-to-staff infection has so far been successful. Adherence to Covid measures in place is essential. See Maurits slides for Building Zones and Contacts for each zone.

 

Meeting Rooms: CR25 has been re-assigned for PPD use and a risk assessment has been prepared. PPD meeting room will also be prepared for meetings but being used as a drop off point for PPD deliveries at present. Risk assessment prepared for CR 25 will also apply to this room.

 

Increased occupancy levels on hold for present, but will go ahead eventually in small increments.

 

Boulby Status - Tony

 

Pre latest lockdown, occupancy levels had been increasing above and below ground, facemasks were implemented. Mixed reviews from mine stake holders, and some resistance to Covid measures, however they are slowly starting to use face masks in the PPD office and conference room. Following latest lockdown staffing back to 3 days a week and 3 people underground and 1 on the surface. Temperature checks are continuing at the main gate. Hopefully in 2 weeks’ time can open site up a bit more.

 

In the meantime there have been Covid incidents with regard to a couple of staff on site:

 

Maria who joined recently as contract cleaner had taken her mother, who has an immunity issue, to be Covid tested. As Maria was in the car, she was tested as well and tested positive for Covid. Maria was part of a team of 3 on site for Dark Matter day and had handed over her laptop to her colleague Chris. Maria self-isolated for 14 days and Chris did as well on the off-chance that he had picked up the infection.

 

Another colleague, Jimmy is involved in a local football club where several people have gone down with Covid. He has also self-isolated.

 

So overall the measures in place have worked well. In addition staff are even more vigilant when handing over equipment to each other.

 

CO2 monitors have now been received. So monitoring of rooms with more than one staff present now possible.

 

ICL have tightened up training activities and Tony has completed audit for them. They use fogging machines when cleaning the offices.

 

The mine owners have purchased a COSH system for use by PPD.

 

PPD DSC Report – Maurits

 

See Maurits’ slides on Indico.

 

  • Information posters on return to Level 3 have been produced and Maurits will start posting these again. Dewar Ice Plug Formation should be noted.

 

  • SHE notices issued on purchasing and installing new equipment and DSE assessment for staff working from home.

 

  • Incidents reported – Boulby incident referred to in Tony’s report. Underlines the importance of adhering to the measures in place, and because of this the incident was contained really well, meaning that work continued at the mine in a relatively undisturbed way.

 

  • SHE codes audit

 

PPD still has 5 actions outstanding:

 

    • Try before you buy scheme – this was advertised within PPD.
    • Mandatory training requirements – PPD staff have been advised on outstanding training and this has been relatively successful.
    • Non-technical manager training – need to get staff lined up for this.
    • Safety tour training – ongoing.
    • PAT tester – There is now a replacement for Tim Durkin. To be reported back.

 

  • STFC 2020/21 H & S Objectives:

 

  • Health and Wellbeing event: Maurits to follow up. Needs to be done before the end of this FY.

 

  • Electrical safety essentials: partly done – 17% outstanding

 

  • All departmental meetings should now include H & S issues – already in place.

 

  • PPD 2020/21 H & S Objectives & Plans:

 

1201 reporting of training – ongoing objective

 

1703 safety procedures for Boulby – reviewed recently

 

2001 safe phased return to work following lockdown – will go through to 2021

 

2002 online staff training – ongoing and being completed

 

2003 safety training needs to be identified in APR – ongoing, there is a technical issue with this

 

  • Training Landscape

 

Comparison with spreadsheet shown last meeting in August shows a big improvement.

 

  • PPD Departmental SHE Risk Register

 

To be completed by the end of this calendar year. Needs to be agreed within the department. Group leaders and division heads to provide feedback. No red risks in the register.

Discussion about what risks should be included, risks in labs abroad with PPD staff, inclusion of risks to employee health, environmental risks and sustainability, a split of SHE register and environmental register.

 

  • PPD Report to RAL SHE Meeting

 

Next RAL Safety Management Committee meeting will be 24th November 2020.

 

Success to be reported: PPD office booking system

Boulby successful Covid response

 

Issues of site-wide relevance: DSE training, DSE policy needs major review.

 

PPD Q2 report from RAL-SHE (See report in Indico)

 

  • Building Fire Managers to keep fire risk assessments under review taking into account the changed occupancy levels over recent months.

 

  • Learn from incidents reported

 

  • Online training to be completed, in particular Electrical Essentials.

 

  • RAL Incident data shows increased incidences in quarter to June but no major incidents

 

  • PPD incident reports – low incidence numbers of minor nature

 

  • Mandatory SHE Training – PPD in a good position compared with STFC totals, however the usual position where DSE self-assessment figures are lower than the DSE training. Perhaps staff are not aware that this is part of the DSE training.

Dave – there is absolutely no excuse for staff not to have done their SHE training. Terry to be proactive in chasing staff to complete training.

 

  • SHE code updates – see Garth’s report in Indico

 

  • Fire Safety – fire drills were temporarily suspended but these will be rolled out again soon.

 

  • Occupational Health – flu vaccinations are underway

 

Any Other Business

 

John Matheson queried timing of access to clean room. Currently 7 am to 4 pm which is difficult for staff with children. This is a TD facility so will be difficult to change times.

Actions

 

  1. Terry Assemble SHE requirements and documentation for new starters in a single location.

 

  1. Terry Ensure staff complete mandatory H & S training.

 

  1. MvdG Health & Wellbeing event to be arranged for PPD staff

 

  1. MvdG Prepare final version of PPD SHE Risk Register with input from SHE Committee.

 

  1. MvdG Safety Tour training to be updated for relevant staff

 

Calendar

 

Each Meeting:

  • Assess progress with Improvement Plan.
  • Assess status of Boulby, in particular with respect to Boulby IP.

Once a year:

  • Apr: Ensure people include Safety Training in APR.

Communicate to SHE Grp names of Summer Students so as to exclude from Training stats.

Review Committee’s ToR.

  • Aug: Review status in PPD Safety Mtg concerning Risk Assessments.
  • Aug: Boulby Team to review RAs and Method Statements.
  • Autumn Office Tour (every 2 years; next in 2022)
  • Dec: Lab Tour … include R115 Clean Rooms.

 

Next Meeting

 

Date TBC, around February 2021.

 

Terry & MvdG 12th November 2020

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