Lewis Jackson Health and Safety Consultant, Pontypool (2025)

14/12/2025

🗓 UK Health & Safety Legislation & Enforcement Update
Issued by: Lewis Jackson Safety
Week ending: 14 December 2025

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🏗 Construction, Plant & CDM Safety

1️⃣ LOLER & PSSR Under Review – HSE Call for Evidence
📄 Update: HSE has completed a Call for Evidence reviewing the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) and the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSR). The review is aimed at modernising requirements and assessing whether current inspection and maintenance regimes remain fit for purpose.
⚙️ Impact: While no immediate legal changes have been made, this signals potential future amendments to lifting and pressure-system compliance expectations.
✅ Action: Ensure lifting equipment registers, thorough examination reports and written schemes of examination are current, complete and defensible.

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🔥 Fire & Building Safety

2️⃣ BS 9991:2024 Now Influencing Residential Fire Safety Expectations
📄 Update: The updated BS 9991:2024 standard for fire safety in residential buildings is now in circulation, covering design, management and use of residential premises, including care homes and buildings with vulnerable occupants.
⚙️ Impact: Fire risk assessments and building safety strategies relying on outdated standards may be challenged, particularly for higher-risk residential buildings.
✅ Action: Review residential fire risk assessments and management plans to ensure alignment with BS 9991:2024 and current best practice.

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🧠 Occupational Health, Asbestos & Enforcement Focus

3️⃣ Asbestos Regulations Consultation – Increased Scrutiny Ahead
📄 Update: HSE has launched a consultation on improving the Control of Asbestos Regulations, focusing on survey quality, independence of the four-stage clearance process and clearer definitions of Notifiable Non-Licensed Work (NNLW).
⚙️ Impact: Dutyholders carrying out maintenance or refurbishment works should expect higher expectations around asbestos surveys and management arrangements.
✅ Action: Check asbestos registers are up to date, surveys are suitable for the work planned and contractors are briefed before work starts.

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⚖️ Key Takeaways for Businesses

• Lifting equipment and pressure systems remain under regulatory review – compliance must be robust.
• Residential fire safety standards are evolving – outdated guidance may no longer be acceptable.
• Asbestos management continues to attract close regulatory attention, even for minor works.

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📢 Need support reviewing lifting equipment compliance, residential fire safety arrangements or asbestos management systems?
Lewis Jackson Safety provides practical audits, RAMS reviews and compliance support across all sectors.

11/12/2025

Another Work-at-Height Prosecution This Week
HSE has released another case where a tree worker fell over 30ft because the job wasn’t properly planned or supervised. No rescue plan, no safe system, and no competent oversight — and it’s ended in life-changing injuries and big fines.
These incidents are avoidable.
Lewis Jackson Safety can help put the right planning, training and rescue arrangements in place so your team never ends up in the same situation.

https://press.hse.gov.uk/2025/12/09/tree-specialists-fined-after-worker-falls-from-height/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social+&utm_campaign=prosecution-push

07/12/2025

🗓 UK Health & Safety Legislation & Enforcement Update
Issued by: Lewis Jackson Safety
Week ending: 7 December 2025

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🏗 Construction, Plant & Building Safety

1️⃣ Excavator / Plant Safety – New HSE Safety Alert Issued
📄 Update: HSE has released a national safety alert after several serious incidents involving excavators and earth-moving plant caused by unexpected machine movement when controls were not isolated.
⚙️ Impact: Plant isolation, operator competence and maintenance standards remain major enforcement priorities across construction and civil engineering.
✅ Action: Review isolation/LOTO procedures, ensure daily plant checks are recorded, and brief operators on the risks of inadvertent movement.

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🔥 Fire Safety & Building Regulatory Updates

2️⃣ Fire Alarm Standard BS 5839-1 Updated – 2025 Edition Now in Effect
📄 Update: The 2025 update to BS 5839-1 (fire detection and alarm systems in non-domestic buildings) is now active, tightening expectations for detector siting, system design, maintenance and even cybersecurity of remote-access features.
⚙️ Impact: Fire-risk assessments, maintenance contracts, and building-safety files should now reflect the 2025 requirements—not older versions of the standard.
✅ Action: Check your fire-alarm servicing provider is working to the 2025 edition; update FRA references where needed.

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🧠 Occupational Health, Worker Protection & Enforcement Trends

3️⃣ Sentencing Guidelines Strengthened for H&S Offences
📄 Update: The Sentencing Council has issued updated guidance for Health & Safety and Corporate Manslaughter offences—particularly for very large organisations, increasing the likelihood of higher fines where risk or harm is significant.
⚙️ Impact: Boards and owners should expect tougher penalties if failures in risk management, health surveillance or worker protection lead to harm.
✅ Action: Ensure risk assessments, training records and supervision arrangements are “inspection-ready” and can be evidenced immediately.

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⚖️ Key Takeaways for Businesses

• Plant isolation and operator competency remain top enforcement targets.
• Fire-safety documentation should now reference BS 5839-1:2025.
• Sentencing changes mean fines for organisations will continue to rise—evidence of good management systems is essential.

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📢 Need support updating fire-safety documentation, reviewing plant-safety procedures or auditing site risk management?
Lewis Jackson Safety provides no-nonsense, ready-to-use safety systems for businesses across all sectors.

05/12/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AJqjynSG4/?mibextid=wwXIfr

03/12/2025

Had one of those phone calls this morning that stops you in your tracks.

A client rang me in tears after a surprise council safety inspection at Beau Bronze in Abersychan . For a second I thought something had gone wrong… but they were happy tears. The inspector was genuinely impressed with how well the salon is run, how safe the safety management set-up is, and how high the standards are day-to-day. A true reflection of the hard work at Beau Bronze.

The thing is, good safety isn’t just what you see on the surface. It’s everything that goes on behind the scenes — the checks, the training, the records, the systems, the way a business quietly works to keep people safe. A lot of companies overlook that part, but Beau Bronze don’t. Jackie and her team have taken it seriously from day one, and today’s result shows it.

I’m proud to be their safety consultant and glad they trust me to support them along the way. Massive well done to Jackie Baker and the team at Beau Bronze you should all be proud. If you’re looking for a safety-conscious sunbed salon in Pontypool, they’re one I’d happily recommend every time.

And if you want your business to reach that same regulator-pleasing standard, get in touch. Keeping your business, your staff and your customers safe — the no-nonsense Lewis Jackson Safety way.

https://www.lewisjacksonsafety.com/

30/11/2025

🗓 UK Health & Safety Legislation & Enforcement Update
Issued by: Lewis Jackson Safety
Week ending: 7 December 2025

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🏗 Construction, Manufacturing & Machinery Safety

1️⃣ Worker Loses Leg in Poorly Controlled Machinery Operation
📄 Update: A stove manufacturer on the Isle of Wight has been fined £200,000 plus costs after an employee’s leg was amputated when it became trapped in machinery. HSE found failures in safeguarding dangerous parts and in safe systems of work for operating and maintaining the equipment.

⚙️ Impact: HSE continues to come down hard on companies that can’t demonstrate robust guarding, isolation and supervision around dangerous machinery – especially where there is a foreseeable risk of entanglement or in-running nips.

✅ Action:
• Re-check guarding on all high-risk plant (saws, presses, conveyors, mixers, augers, etc.).
• Verify that lock-off / isolation procedures for cleaning and maintenance are documented, trained and supervised.
• Audit your PUWER inspections and make sure defects are logged, prioritised and closed out.

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🔥 Fire & Building Safety

2️⃣ 2025/26 Fire & Building Safety Changes – Sprinklers, Testing & Responsibilities
📄 Update: The fire and building safety regime is tightening again: updates to Approved Document B strengthen fire safety information and sprinkler expectations, particularly in higher-risk and care settings; and wider 2025/26 fire-safety updates emphasise sprinklers in new care homes, improved evacuation planning and alignment with European fire test standards (BS EN 13501) instead of BS 476.

⚙️ Impact: Dutyholders (clients, building owners, managing agents, responsible persons) are expected to actively track and respond to changing guidance – “we didn’t know” will not be a defence. Designs, fire strategies and fire risk assessments that rely on outdated standards or assumptions will increasingly be challenged.

✅ Action:
• Check whether any of your care, residential or mixed-use buildings are affected by the new sprinkler and design expectations.
• Make sure your fire risk assessments reference current guidance (including the latest versions of Approved Document B and relevant BS standards).
• Confirm roles: who is your “responsible person” and who is monitoring ongoing legislative/standards changes? Document this clearly.

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🧠 Ill-Health, Stress & Enforcement Trends

3️⃣ Ill-Health & Stress Still High – And HSE Conviction Rate at 96%
📄 Update: HSE’s latest statistics show around 1.9 million workers suffered work-related ill-health in 2024/25, with around half of those cases due to stress, depression or anxiety. Separately, HSE reports a 96% conviction rate in completed prosecutions, with fines totalling around £33m this year.

⚙️ Impact: Mental health is no longer a “soft” topic – it is a core regulatory focus alongside traditional safety. At the same time, enforcement outcomes show that when HSE does prosecute, conviction is highly likely and fines are substantial, particularly where risk is obvious and poorly controlled.

✅ Action:
• Refresh your stress risk assessment and make sure it leads to practical controls (workload management, supervision, job design, consultation), not just posters and leaflets.
• Ensure your Board or owners see both safety and mental health KPIs (incidents, near misses, absence, turnover).
• Confirm you could evidence “suitable and sufficient” risk assessments, training and supervision if HSE visited tomorrow.

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⚖️ Key Takeaways for Businesses

• Dangerous machinery without robust guarding and isolation is still attracting large fines and life-changing injuries.
• Fire and building safety guidance is tightening: stay aligned with the latest versions of Approved Document B and relevant fire standards.
• Ill-health – especially stress – remains at record levels, and HSE’s conviction and fine data shows real consequences for weak management systems.

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📢 Want to sense-check your machinery controls, fire safety arrangements or stress-risk documentation?
Lewis Jackson Safety can carry out site audits, update your RAMS and help you align with current UK legislation and HSE expectations.

23/11/2025

🗓 UK Health & Safety Legislation & Enforcement Update
Issued by: Lewis Jackson Safety
Week ending: 30 November 2025

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🏗 Construction, Civil Engineering & Building Services

1️⃣ Machinery Guarding Failures – Major Fine Issued
📄 Update: A Yorkshire animal-feed manufacturer was fined £500,000 after a worker’s foot was trapped in unguarded machinery (a rotating auger).
⚙️ Impact: Reinforces that machinery-guarding and isolation remain high on the enforcement agenda.
✅ Action: Review all high-risk machines: check guarding, interlocks, safe isolation and maintenance records.

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🧠 Occupational Health & Maintenance Work

2️⃣ Asbestos Disturbance – Small Building Works Can Still Trigger Prosecution
📄 Update: Elstree Film Studios Limited was fined £6,000 for disturbing asbestos during minor maintenance work.
⚙️ Impact: Maintenance / refurbishment operations must treat asbestos risk as seriously as major projects.
✅ Action: Ensure surveys cover all work-areas, register is accessible and operatives briefed in advance.

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🌍 General Health & Safety Trends

3️⃣ Annual Ill-Health Figures Published – Stress and Mental Health in Focus
📄 Update: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published figures for 2024-25 showing ~1.9 million workers suffered work-related ill-health; 964,000 reported stress, depression or anxiety.
⚙️ Impact: Mental-health risks are now a core component of regulatory focus—not just physical hazards.
✅ Action: Update your stress risk assessment, implement measurable controls (not just awareness), and record follow-up actions.

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⚖️ Key Takeaways for Businesses

• Guarding of machinery must be robust: big fines are being handed down.
• Even small-scale maintenance tasks must treat asbestos with full control measures.
• Mental-health risk management continues to be elevated in enforcement priorities.

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📢 Need a review of your site machinery controls, asbestos-management systems or stress-risk documentation?
Get in touch — Lewis Jackson Safety offers audits, RAMS updates and compliance support right across all sectors.

16/11/2025

🗓 UK Health & Safety Legislation & Enforcement Update
Issued by Lewis Jackson Safety
Week ending: 23 November 2025

This week brings a few important changes and enforcement trends that businesses should be aware of. Here’s the quick breakdown.

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🏗 Construction, Civils & Building Services

1️⃣ Asbestos Regulations Review – HSE Consultation
HSE has opened a consultation to strengthen the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. Key areas being looked at include independence of clearance procedures, improving survey standards, and clarifying notifiable non-licensed work. The consultation closes 9 January 2026.
Action: Make sure asbestos surveys and registers are up to date, and check that your clearance processes meet the expected standard.

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🧠 Occupational Health

2️⃣ HAVS Enforcement – Company Fined for Vibration Failures
A recent prosecution saw a maintenance firm fined £32,000 after workers suffered vibration-related ill-health. HSE has made it clear that health risks are a priority, not just safety hazards.
Action: Review HAVS assessments, tool-maintenance records and health-surveillance arrangements.

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🌍 General HSE Focus

3️⃣ Enforcement & Consultation Activity Increasing
HSE’s latest updates highlight a strong focus on asbestos, vibration, and refreshing outdated regulatory standards. More inspections are expected across smaller contractors and maintenance teams.
Action: Keep your documentation current and make sure your RAMS reflect today’s enforcement themes, not last year’s.

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⚖️ Key Points for Businesses
• Asbestos controls and survey standards are under the microscope.
• HAVS remains a major enforcement target.
• HSE is clearly modernising and pushing for higher standards across the board.

If your business needs support getting ready for inspections or wants a review of its safety systems, feel free to get in touch.

09/11/2025

🗓 UK Health & Safety Legislation & Enforcement Update
Issued by: Lewis Jackson Safety
Week ending: 9 November 2025

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🔥 Fire Safety & Residential Property Management Pyrsafe Compliance

1️⃣ Fire Safety (Regulations) – Residential Evacuation Plans (England) 2025
📄 Update: New regulations have been laid before Parliament requiring responsible persons for residential and mixed-use buildings to create Person-Centred Fire Risk Assessments and offer Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) to residents who need them.
⚙️ Impact: Landlords, housing associations and property managers must consult residents and record individual evacuation requirements. Costs and administration are expected to increase once enforced in 2026.
✅ Action: Start reviewing fire-safety policies now — update evacuation planning procedures and brief fire wardens on assisting vulnerable residents.
🔗 Source: Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025

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🏗 Construction & Engineering Sectors

2️⃣ LOLER & PSSR Review – HSE Call for Evidence Open
📄 Update: HSE has launched a formal review of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 and Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000. Responses are open until 11 November 2025.
⚙️ Impact: Potential changes to inspection frequencies, competent-person definitions and record formats may follow in 2026.
✅ Action: Audit all lifting and pressure system documentation now — ensure written schemes are up to date and competence certificates filed for verification.
🔗 Source: HSE Consultation – LOLER & PSSR 2025

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🌍 Environmental Protection & Fire Service Operations

3️⃣ PFAS in Firefighting Foams – UK REACH Consultation
📄 Update: A new consultation proposes restricting the use of PFAS chemicals in firefighting foams due to long-term health and environmental risks. The consultation runs until 18 February 2026.
⚙️ Impact: Affects manufacturers, fire services, airports, fuel depots and industrial sites that store or use PFAS-based foam.
✅ Action: Identify where PFAS foams are stored or used within client operations and plan to transition to approved alternatives before ban dates take effect.
🔗 Source: UK REACH PFAS Consultation 2025/26

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🏠 Building Safety & Cladding Remediation

4️⃣ High-Rise Remediation Progress – Government Data Release
📄 Update: Latest figures show 5,558 residential buildings (11 metres +) still require cladding remediation in England and Wales. Enforcement of Building Safety Act duties continues for owners and accountable persons.
⚙️ Impact: Dutyholders must demonstrate active remediation plans, documented safety cases and golden-thread records.
✅ Action: Audit building safety files and ensure progress updates are recorded for BSR review.
🔗 Source: DLUHC Building Safety Programme – October 2025

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⚖️ Key Takeaways for Businesses
• Fire-safety law is tightening again — plan for PEEP requirements early.
• Construction and engineering clients should prepare for LOLER / PSSR reform.
• Environmental regulations are expanding to include PFAS foam restrictions.
• High-rise property owners face increasing pressure to demonstrate remediation and compliance.

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📢 If you need help understanding how these changes affect your business or projects, get in touch with Lewis Jackson Safety for support, audits and full compliance management.

02/11/2025

🗓 UK Health & Safety Legislation & Enforcement Update
Issued by: Lewis Jackson Safety
Week ending: 2 November 2025

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🏗 Construction, Civil Engineering & Building Services

1️⃣ HSE “Day of Action” – Manchester Construction Inspections
📄 Update: HSE inspectors carried out a large-scale operation in Manchester targeting construction sites for dust, noise, vibration, manual handling, and asbestos exposure.
⚙️ Impact: All types of construction work – including refurbishments and small projects – are under renewed scrutiny.
✅ Action: Ensure RAMS cover dust suppression, HAVS, manual handling, and noise management. Confirm all staff have seen the asbestos register before work begins.
🔗 Source: HSE Press Release – October 2025

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2️⃣ Building Safety Regulator – Gateway 2 Delays & Quality Reviews
📄 Update: The Government has committed to resolving the backlog of Building Safety Regulator Gateway 2 approvals, after industry feedback on delays. Staffing increases are planned, but document scrutiny is tightening.
⚙️ Impact: Submissions with missing or poor-quality information are being returned rather than conditionally approved.
✅ Action: Double-check design safety files, fire strategy documents, competence records, and golden thread information before submission.
🔗 Source: Regulatory Outlook – October 2025

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3️⃣ LOLER & PSSR Review – Call for Evidence
📄 Update: HSE is reviewing the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 and Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000. The consultation runs until 11 November 2025.
⚙️ Impact: Possible changes ahead on inspection intervals, written schemes, and competent-person definitions.
✅ Action: Audit all lifting and pressure system documentation and confirm competent-person certifications are valid.
🔗 Source: HSE Consultation – LOLER / PSSR 2025

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🧠 Occupational Health & Mental Wellbeing

4️⃣ HSE – Mental Health: From Awareness to Action
📄 Update: HSE is urging employers to move beyond “awareness days” and take measurable action on work-related stress and mental health.
⚙️ Impact: Inspectors will now ask to see how stress risk assessments are implemented, not just written.
✅ Action: Use the HSE “Talking Toolkit,” record findings, and include follow-up actions in your H&S plan.
🔗 Source: HSE – World Mental Health Day 2025

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🚘 Motor Vehicle Repair, Spray Shops & Smart Repair

5️⃣ HSE Enforcement – Isocyanate Inspections Intensify
📄 Update: HSE is carrying out 1,000+ inspections of bodyshops and smart-repair sites using 2K/isocyanate paints due to a sharp rise in occupational asthma cases.
⚙️ Impact: Non-compliant sites are receiving improvement or prohibition notices for missing RPE maintenance, LEV tests, or health surveillance.
✅ Action:
• Air-fed masks tested and serviced
• LEV inspected every 14 months
• Health surveillance records up to date
🔗 Source: HSE WorkRight Campaign 2025

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🏠 Facilities Management, Property & Maintenance

6️⃣ Asbestos & Work-at-Height Enforcement Focus
📄 Update: Multiple October prosecutions show continuing failures in asbestos management and edge protection during maintenance work.
⚙️ Impact: Inspectors are prioritising older properties, small contractors, and maintenance teams where risk is often underestimated.
✅ Action:
• Keep asbestos surveys and registers current
• Obtain signatures before intrusive works
• Check edge protection, access routes, and roof safety controls
🔗 Source: WOBO – HSE News Roundup Oct 2025

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📢 Need help preparing for HSE inspection or reviewing your safety documentation?
Lewis Jackson Safety provides site audits, risk assessments, policy updates, and full compliance support for businesses across all sectors.

Lewis Jackson Health and Safety Consultant

14/12/2025

11/12/2025

07/12/2025

05/12/2025

03/12/2025

30/11/2025

23/11/2025

16/11/2025

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