PPD SHE Management Committee – 2nd February 2021 – Conducted via Zoom
Present: Maurits van der Grinten (PPD DSC),
Dave Newbold (Chair & PPD Director),
Garth Harris (STFC RAL H & S rep),
Anthony Murphy (H & S Manager Boulby),
Paul Scovell (Facility Manager Boulby),
Manny Olaiya (Building Fire Manager),
Terry Cornford (Secretary)
Actions from Last Meeting 12th November 2020
Complete but make staff aware of the location – Maurits to do.
Ongoing – Maurits to forward up to date list to Terry.
To be postponed until staff are back in the office when more people are likely to engage with this in person rather than yet another Zoom meeting.
Sent in just before Christmas – will be an ongoing discussion with other departments.
Complete
Matters Arising
Health & Wellbeing event
Garth - evidence of other departments treating the Health & Wellbeing event as a ‘tick-box’ exercise. So would be better in person. At RAL site meeting, Maurits will report that we are still thinking about this. Dave – any event will need to have a practical element in order that staff in PPD will engage.
Union Representative
Normally a union rep is invited to the SHE Committee meeting, however Stewart Martin-Haugh is no longer available. Michael Hirsch, CLF is happy to do this temporarily, however he was not available for this meeting.
Covid
Onsite working is continuing where required, and the booking system is working. New FFP2 facemasks are now available plus goggles following request from Chris Brew as he had to work closely with other staff members. Should there be training to use these masks? The official policy is not to have masks as this invites people to drop their guard in social distancing. Dave - training would be useful in use of these masks. Garth confirmed this is being investigated by SHE Group. Tony – at Boulby face fit testing of FFP2 and FFP3 in place, although time consuming.
PPD meeting room now PPD only although now full of lab equipment at present.
Increase in site occupation on hold at present across the site. New Covid measures in place i.e. thermometers are now provided for all staff to use before coming to RAL. All Covid documents are now on the PPD Sharepoint pages.
Letters of authority to come on site have been issued to a few staff.
Safety tours have been suspended which places extra onus on staff to be wary on site!
Boulby Status - Tony
Continuing 3 days a week underground with two staff and one contractor. Everything seems to be OK with masks. Owners have insisted on surgical masks being worn everywhere on surface. Had a problem with lack of social distancing underground but the owners have rectified this. Authorisation required for anyone outside of staff to come on site.
Near miss when member of staff put a foot through the ceiling from the attic – no injuries. Damage repaired and attic area of use has been reduced and restricted.
Company training now available to Boulby staff provided by external company on behalf of the mine owners.
New activities in next 1/3 years at Boulby – H & S framework for this is being discussed and put in place. SHE management/ Graham Finlan (?)/Maurits to be copied in.
Paul – swab testing has taken place round the mine. Has been positive in the past but clear now, so barriers in place are obviously working. No Covid related issues over last month. Owners have put CO2 monitors in place in the last month following STFC policy.
Dave – is there swab testing at RAL? No. Maurits to perhaps feed back to Bronze that this would be a logical follow up.
Paul – ICL are now making anyone who has been tested positive for Covid in the past re-do lung capacity test. Tony to advise Julie Black of this – could be done at RAL.
Tony reported there were 6/8 days of mines inspectors in building after electrical incident with no adverse comment on Covid precautions.
PPD DSC Report – Maurits
See Maurits’ slides on Indico.
Bitesize SHE courses – Electrical Safety of interest to PPD.
New Codes Management of Radioactive Waste
Management of Ionising Radiation at Work
Boulby – foot through attic floor – minor incident – see above.
Boulby - Power outage meant mine staff were stuck underground but no lab staff – minor incident.
One person at PPD tested positive for Covid in January, but they have not been on site since start of December.
5 out of 5 now complete.
Mark Tucker to take over PAT testing from Tim Durkin but the testing kit has gone missing.
Electrical essential course – still 15% staff to do.
All future meetings to include H & S discussions – this is now happening.
Training reporting - ongoing
Boulby safety reviewed annually – this is being done
Safe return to work for PPD staff following lockdown – ongoing
Electronics bitesize training - ongoing
Safety training needs identified in APR process – will fall into place when next APR takes place
See slide for tables
Mandatory – Dave will make a weekly chase of staff to complete each course. Terry will notify Dave of outstanding training.
See Slide on Indico.
This is now a starting point for the department.
Successes or feedback to Maurits please
Next RAL Safety Management Committee meeting will be 22nd February.
PPD Q3 report from RAL-SHE Group - Garth’s report – see slides on Indico.
SC04 Use of work equipment – update relate to use of kickstools.
SC22 Working with lasers – has been a large update and so the whole code will need to be reviewed.
SC29 Management of Ionising Radiation at Work – again has been a major update.
HSE is carrying out spot checks to ensure Covid secure – have been 2 at Daresbury to date.
Fire drills have been paused.
Any Other Business
Return to work – vaccination etc. UKRI plan not yet known.
Department will have to restart international travel – some projects are at a critical juncture. Maurits will report upwards.
Actions
Garth – look into training in use of FFP2 masks.
Tony to e-mail Julie re lung-capacity testing.
Maurits to feed back to Bronze on possible swab testing
Terry to notify Dave weekly of outstanding staff training
Manny will provide copy of Departmental Fire Risk Assessment to Maurits
Calendar
Each Meeting:
Once a year:
Communicate to SHE Grp names of Summer Students so as to exclude from Training stats.
Review Committee’s ToR.
Next Meeting
Date 13th May 2021, at 10 am.
Terry & MvdG 2nd February 2021