Health, Safety & Quality Consultancy
On November 25th 2013, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) released the new (version 4) of the Approved Codes of Practice (ACOP) “Legionnaires’ Disease: The Control of Legionella Bacteria in Water Systems (L8)”.
This was the first significant update for over 10 years and much has moved on in technology and control terms.
Approved Codes of Practice give practical guidance on compliance. Failure to comply with an Approved Code of Practice is not an offence in itself, however, these codes have special legal status. If an employer/individual faces criminal prosecution under health and safety law, and it is proved that the advice of the Approved Code of Practice has not been followed , a court can regard it as evidence of guilt unless it is satisfied that the employer/individual has complied with the law in some other way. Following Approved Codes of Practice is therefore regarded as best practice.
Sound confusing? In a nutshell , to comply with the law, the safest thing you can do to protect yourself and those on the site you are responsible for is to adhere to the guidance.
The new Approved Code of Practice states that a site of 5 employees or more should have a Legionella Risk Assessment in place, just as you for Fire and Asbestos.
What is a Legionella Risk Assessment? It is a careful examination of the domestic water system on site to assess for the risk of Legionnaires Disease that looks at the following:
In order to expand our safety management services, GD Associates has recently teamed up with a local legionella specialist company, for more information regarding legionella control please contact us on 07947 802209.