THE UK government’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has published technical guidance on the safe use of lifting equipment offshore as part of an initiative to reduce the number of lifting related injuries and deaths offshore.
The aim of the document is to provide guidance on how to comply with the relevant UK legislation. It does not impose new duties or regulations.
The new guidance supplements existing HSE guidance on the safe use of lifting equipment and provides technical information for those who are involved in the operation and control of lifting equipment offshore. It is aimed at dutyholders, managers and anyone directly involved in using lifting equipment offshore, although others, such as safety representatives, manufacturers, suppliers and verification bodies will also find it useful, the HSE believes. The guidance covers all frequently used lifting equipment and accessories. It includes a section on personnel carriers.
Taf Powell, head of HSE Offshore Division, said: ‘Lifting operations create an unacceptably high level of risk offshore – between 4 January 2000 and now, there were six [UK] offshore deaths, four of which were directly related to the use of lifting equipment. Relatively straightforward measures could have prevented many recent accidents. For this reason we have prepared this guidance which gives information on technical measures rather than management and control issues.’
Powell continued: ‘We have produced guidance specifically for the offshore industry because in many ways the offshore environment makes lifting operations different from onshore lifting – for example the corrosion caused by salt spray, the lack of space on installations and the difficulties of lifting from vessels which move with the wind and waves.’
The guidance supplements the Approved Codes of Practice that support the Lifting Operations & Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) and the Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER).
Copies of the guidance can be ordered online at: www.hsebooks.co.uk
