COVID-19 Update 01/06/2020


Dear Member,

Many of you will be aware that during a somewhat politically charged period, there has been encouragement to report companies to the Health and Safety Executive for concerns over safe working with social distancing. We know that the reporting level has been substantial, so felt it was useful to share the experience that one company had when being contacted by the HSE in follow up:

  • Contact from HSE came at a time when the principle contact could not respond immediately, but the HSE contact was happy to be phoned back as soon as possible
  • Principle contact was requested to place themselves at the entrance of the building and walk through the operation describing all the Covid-19 alterations to operations that had been made
  • Requested that Covid-19 risk assessment  and policies were sent to HSE person at end of call
  • Particular and high attention paid to arrangements for toilets including numbers permitted and use of physical markings and barriers to limit numbers and risk
  • Canteens, shared spaces and other common touch points also of key interest
  • After speaking to principle contact, HSE person asked to speak to responsible HSE person on site, and when this person not available asked to speak to person with surname with random initial letter in order to verify similar answers to questions asked
  • It should be noted that the company reported that the HSE professional was fair, balanced and thorough throughout the conversation.

Any member who has been in a situation where MSP’s, MP’s or TU’s have been encouraging employees to use the HSE reporting portal should be aware of this process, and are welcome to contact us for support.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) Update

At the end of last week the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced more details about the extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). HM Treasury have added considerable detail on changes and these can be viewed here.

STATWARS Climate Change Challenge Home learning resources

Member company Primary Engineer have launched their newest project, The STATWARS®: Climate Change Challenge. The vision behind this project is to empower and educate pupils to tackle climate change, by providing a project that delivers meaningful and engaging mathematics, numeracy and data literacy to pupils! For more info on how to register, click here.