PPE Regulation update expected to be approved this year

The business standards company BSI has a good post explaining how an updated version of the PPE Regulation is expected to be approved before the end of 2015.

The existing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Directive 89/686/EEC is now over 26 years old and clearly needs overhauling. The proposed changes have been approved in draft form by the European Commission and Parliament. All we need to happen now is for the European Council to agree it.

The key changes, as listed by BSI are as follows:

• PPE Directive will be replaced by a Regulation
• A number of types of protection will move from category II (intermediate) to category III (complex)
• There will be a requirement to supply a declaration of conformity with every item of PPE that is placed on the market
• A five year certificate of validity is being suggested bringing the Regulation in line with similar European requirements such as the Medical Devices Directive

For more information please visit the BSI website.

Draft guidance published in advance of changes to RIDDOR

The HSE has issued details of the proposed changes to RIDDOR 1995 that are due to come into place in October, subject to parliament approval. The main changes will simplify the reporting requirements in the following areas;-

• the classification of "major injuries" is to replaced with a shorter list of "specified injuries"
• the existing schedule covering 47 types of industrial disease is to be replaced with eight groups of reportable work-related illness
• 21 types of "dangerous occurrence" will require reporting, as opposed to the previous 27 types of incident

There will be no significant changes to the reporting requirements for fatal accidents, accidents to non workers and accidents leading to a worker being unable to perform their normal range of duties for more than seven days.