Correspondence on proposed
Work at Height Regulations
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to: Frank McAveety MSP Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Edinburgh 18th June 2003 Dear Mr. McAveety, European Directive on Temporary Work at Height (2001/45/EC) I am writing to express the serious concerns held by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland and the Scottish Mountain Safety Forum regarding these regulations.
The Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) is the representative body for walkers, climbers, mountaineers and cross-country skiers in Scotland. It is a membership organisation with 9,300 members (7,200 members in 139 clubs; 2,000 individual members) and 29 Associate organisations and companies. It is run by an elected Executive Committee of over 25 volunteers and employs a National Officer, Access and Conservation Officer and a Mountain Safety Adviser. The Scottish Mountain Safety Forum is an umbrella group of 24 organisations concerned with aspects of mountain safety (including the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, Association of Mountaineering Instructors, British Association of Mountain Guides, Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland, Scottish Accident Prevention Council, Scottish Advisory Panel for Outdoor Education, Scottish Natural Heritage and VisitScotland). The forum is funded by the Scottish Executive through sportscotland (currently £22,000). One of the duties of the forum is to advise the Scottish Executive on mountain safety issues. Please will you help us to ensure that the adventure activities sector is exempt from these regulations. Should you wish to discuss this matter in greater detail we will be happy to assist in any way possible. Yours sincerely, President Elect
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SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE
to: 21st July 2003 Dear Lord Cromartie Thank you for your letter of 18 June to Frarik McAveety, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, expressing the concerns of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland and the Scottish Mountain Safety Forum about the draft Working at Height Regulations. While health and safety at work is a reserved manor; for which the UK Government is responsible, education and sport and recreation (including safety in sport) are the responsibility of the devolved administration in Scotland. We are aware of the concerns felt by the outdoor adventure activities sector about the implementation in the UK of the EC Directive on Temporary Work at Height. However, we understand that a great deal of work has still to be done on the proposed legislation, including a formal consultation exercise due to commence in the autumn, before final decisions are taken. I understand that the Health and Safety Executive has given an assurance that the concerns of the sector are not being overlooked and I believe that the consultation exercise will provide an appropriate mechanism for addressing your concerns. The Scottish Executive will be monitoring developments closely and, given the importance of the adventure activities sector to Scotland, we will be ready to take this matter up with the UK Government if implementation plans are likely to be damaging to the sector. Yours Sincerely
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The following is an exchange of letters between Bill Callaghan,
Chair of the Health and Safety Commission, and Sir Chris Bonington:
Health & Safety Commission
to: 11 September 2003 Temporary Work at Height You may recall that we met at the International Powered Access Federation Conference earlier this year (when you were ambushed by Michael Aspel). On return from leave I have just seen your article in The Guardian and I thought it would be useful if I were to set out how the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) intend to proceed, this is, I am afraid, an issue which has generated more heat than light. The first point to emphasise is that no final decisions have been made about how to implement the EU Directive on Temporary Work at Height (2OO1/45/EC), indeed the HSC have yet to approve the final text of a Consultation Document (CD). The early versions of the draft Regulations and guidance that entered the public domain have evolved considerably. These changes are partly due to further meetings that have taken place between the HSE and the adventure activities sector since Plas y Brenin. The HSC will continue discussions with this and other sectors before putting proposals to Ministers in the light of comments received on the CD. I know that some would like HSC and the Government to exempt the Adventure activities sector altogether. Our consultation will ask whether it is appropriate to provide an exemption for some activities, but we would need to ensure that any exemptions did not conflict with the need to meet our legal obligations to the EC. However, not enough attention has been paid to the following words of this Directive, which state that: 'in exceptional circumstances where, in view of the assessment of risks, the use of a second rope would make the work more dangerous. use of a single rope may be permitted, provided that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure safety in accordance with national legislation and/or practice.' HSE pressed very hard for this to be included in the Directive (against the wishes of other member states), and not enough credit has been given for this achievement; I believe that we shall be able to use this provision to ensure that our approach is a practicable one and that we are able to support undertakings such as Adventure Activities and others such as those in the arboriculture industry, or helicopter rescue etc which follow good practice and risk assessment principles when deciding on the use of single rope techniques. As I was arguing at the IPAF conference HSCIE is a proportionate regulator and I have been greatly concerned about the many misleading stories that have appeared in the press recently, for example the ludicrous allegation that we shall force trapeze artistes to wear crash helmets. I think the Adventure Activities sector is an important one and I hope that when we launch the CD we can assuage their fears. Single rope working will be permitted where a risk assessment has demonstrated that two ropes would be more dangerous. One final and more general point: the HSC does not believe that this sector should be subject to onerous and burdensome regulation. For example in the recent review of the licensing regime we argued that a licensing regime was not appropriate. I shall make sure you receive a copy of the CD when it is published. BILL CALLAGHAN |
Sir Christian Bonington, CBE to: 29th September 2003 Temporary Work at Height Many thanks for your letter of 11th September. I do indeed remember meeting you at the International Powered Access conference, though I must confess the trauma of being ambushed by Michael Aspel rather overshadowed my memories of the event. I greatly appreciate your taking the time and trouble to write to me about my article in the Guardian. I do not, however, feel reassured by the words from the directive "that in exceptional circumstances... measures have been taken to ensure safety in accordance with national legislation". The use of a single rope is not an exceptional circumstance; it is a simple alternative that should be left to the judgement of a qualified climbing instructor. I believe this highlights the contradiction of trying to lump under the same legislation work onbuilding sites with outdoor training on crags, be they simple or multi-pitch routes. As I wrote in my article, there is no connection between the two, and I feel that an effort to lump the two together is not going to increase safety in any way whatsoever, and indeed could, through the confusion it will tend to produce and exasperation at the set of inappropriate directives, actually increase danger. I believe that it is essential that you look at the outdoor training area as an individual and unique activity and then fully consult with, and be directed by, the experts in this field. I do not feel that your own officials have either the background knowledge or the experience to be decision-makers in this area. I do hope you will take these comments to heart, as I feel it's very important both to safety and also the effectiveness of outdoor training and to the credibility of the Health and Safety Commission. With very best wishes, Sir Chris Bonington |
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