What's New

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published a safely alert on the subject of vehicles with air suspension systems.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has announced a multi-million financial package for essential freight services which includes up to £17 million for critical ferry routes between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

Acas, the independent public body providing impartial advice to employers and employees, has published new guidance to help staff manage their mental health during the coronavirus pandemic.

With the Government encouraging more people to return to work, assuming they are not among the group who can work from home, employers are having to think seriously about what measures they will need to ensure workplace safety.

Recent announcements by the Government regarding people returning to work have emphasised the need to walk or cycle in order to avoid overcrowding public transport (see Government publishes its COVID-19 recovery strategy and Government puts cash behind getting people to bike to work).

Updated guidance for the freight transport industry on international travel has been issued following the latest government advice for British nationals.

Kindness is the theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, currently taking place up to Sunday 24 May 2020, which aims to highlight the benefits of helping others to improve mental health and wellbeing and reduce stress during and following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Setting out his action plan to tackle the spread of coronavirus, on 4 March, in the Commons, Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that emergency legislation would be introduced to ensure that workers will get statutory sick pay (SSP) from the first day off work, not the fourth.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has warned that some manufacturers are selling medical face masks and other fake personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers using false certificates and that other A4-sized face shields, made in good faith by communities to help frontline workers, could be unsafe because they are too narrow.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced that the Congestion Charge, Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and Low Emission Zone (LEZ) will be reinstated on Monday 18 May, “to prevent London’s roads from becoming unusably blocked”.