Westminster Compliance

We live in a day and age where quality service is very important along with pricing correctly for the marketplace that we aim to trade in. There are a growing number of places where we can all read reviews about many different types of business and an increasing number of people who want to know who you are before they do business with you. So it is important to ensure that wherever there is any type of rating list for your industry, you must be sure that you are at the top end of the list.

This theme is becoming even more relevant for those who sell their services to other business, especially as they start to supply larger business. There are many people who work in the world of procurement and they too are looking to see exactly who their suppliers are. Many of us believe that the market is manly driven by price, however there is simply such a wide range of choice for many buyers that subjects such as business continuity plans, compliance to various legislation, corporate social responsibility, data protection, the environment, equalities, quality and quality management and various other areas are all becoming very important.

This is very time consuming for those in procurement to make detailed studies of each supplier so many choose to ensure that they have some form of pre qualifying questionnaire for any potential supplier. The simplicity is that businesses are judged on a point scoring basis and those with the highest scores are most likely to win more business. Red tape and form filling can be time consuming and problematic for many however if we want more business then we must understand how to win it.

If you want more business then start looking at the various ways that people can instantly recognise that you are the company that they want to deal with and then start to shout about how much better than your competition you really are.

As larger companies take compliance more seriously, smaller companies who feel squeezed by the current economic downturn often are seen to copy compliance documents from others working on site and many do not embrace any culture of safe practices. Much of the actual work completed in the building industry is handed down through a chain of sub-contracts so many of these contractors get to work on larger projects. The main contractor will have completed the right paperwork to ensure they have mitigated themselves from many of the problems that might occur further down the line, leaving those who earn the least with the biggest potential problems.

It is a fact that the larger companies in the building industry invest in training, best practice compliance and record keeping so they automatically instil the right culture within their own workforce and this includes Health and Safety.

The most common accident recorded in the UK occurs with those who work at height and it is becoming obvious that a large percentage of these accidents are from those who are employed by smaller organisations or by those who are self-employed.

This does not look good for the future of the industry as although we are moving towards the government reducing red tape, nobody wants to see more accidents and smaller businesses are not keeping up with their larger competitors. So it is likely that the number of bankruptcies and prosecutions will rise with the smaller building companies and in the long term this will drive up the cost of building and maintenance of the building industry in the UK.

The current government wants more self regulation and accreditation in all industries and there seem to be confusing opinions about this when much can be done without much disruption and at a low cost. Larger contracts demand companies to prove their competency and this is this is in place for many good reasons, but a lack of understanding will leave more smaller businesses without the work that they want so there is a need a address this problem now or many more small businesses will simply disappear.

Don’t let this happen to you!

From 6th April 2012 legislation changes relating to RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) that will affect you!

RIDDOR’s over three day injury reporting requirement will be changing. From then the trigger point will increase from over three days’ to over seven days’ incapacitation (not counting the day on which the accident happened).

Incapacitation means that the worker is absent or is unable to do work that they would reasonably be expected to do as part of their normal work.

Employers and others with responsibilities under RIDDOR must still keep a record of all over three day injuries – if the employer has to keep an accident book, then this record will be enough.

The deadline by which the over seven day injury must be reported will increase to 15 days from the day of the accident.

Should we have supplied you with an Accident/Near Miss report form we will re-issue the updated version to you shortly.

Should you have any questions or require any further information as always please don’t hesitate to contact us – 020 3411 7888.