April 2013 Newsletter

19 Apr, 2013

Welcome to the April issue of the ISO Quality Services Limited newsletter – what’s in this issue:

Congratulations to our Newly Certificated Clients
Health and Safety News – Firm fined for putting workers’ lives at risk
A is for Audit; B is for British Standard; C is for Continual Improvement
Update announced for ISO 9001
Covert recordings by employees
Sponsorship renewed for ‘Chamber Maximise Your Membership’ Events
Networking Events – Come and see us?
Did you Know…?
Newly Created Partnership for Cyber Liability Insurance
Sign up to environmental updates!
Quality Manager Training Day – SOLD OUT

Congratulations to our Newly Certificated Clients

We would like to say welcome to ISO Quality Services newest clients:

Airflow Services Limited

Airflow Services Limited were established in 1996 to provide a high quality service to the Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) industry. They are based in Little Island, Co. Cork, Ireland. They have recently achieved their ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Standard, and also the BS OHSAS 18001:2007 Health & Safety Management Standard. For more information on how Airflow Services Limited may be able to help you visit www.airflow.ie

Breckland Precision Limited

Breckland Precision Limited is a professional CNC machining company who have over 20 years’ experience in the manufacturing of small components industry. They are based in Thetford, Norfolk. They have recently achieved there ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Standard. For more information on how Breckland Precision Limited may be able to help you visit www.bpe-cncprecision.co.uk

Firm fined for putting workers’ lives at risk

A Durham recycling firm has been fined for putting workers’ lives at risk after two machines were found to have vital safety mechanisms deliberately disabled.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) carried out an unannounced inspection at the Spennymoor premises.

Darlington Magistrates’ Court heard today (2 April) that inspectors found there had been deliberate bypassing and disrepair of several machine guards on two baling machines, which were used to compress material such as cardboard and cans for recycling.

Prohibition Notices were served stopping all work on the two machines. The company was also served with an Improvement Notice requiring implementation of a routine guard checking procedure to ensure interlocks and emergency stops were working correctly.

HSE found a total of eight serious faults on the two machines, including the deliberate bypassing of key control systems to allow access to the compaction chambers, and damage to one of the emergency stops on a feed conveyor.

The court was told that as a result of the failings employees had been put at risk of serious and potentially fatal injury over a number of months.

The company was fined a total of £27,200 (£13,600 for each offence) and ordered to pay £4,802 in costs after pleading guilty to two breaches of Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

After the hearing, an HSE inspector said:

“The dangers associated with operating baling machines are well-known in the waste and recycling industry, as is the history of serious and fatal injuries resulting from their use.

These are tremendously powerful machines with a number of mechanical moving parts that have the potential to cause serious harm. Appropriate safeguarding of these machines is extremely important and should include all operations including blockage clearance.

The two baling machines inspected were found to have a significant number of fundamental safety features disabled, a situation the company’s management was aware of.

The standards found at the site were unacceptable. Fortunately no-one was injured by the machines, but this prosecution should act as a wakeup call to companies who do not have a robust safety management system or who put profit before safety.”

The combined fatal and major injury rate in waste and recycling is more than four times the average across all industries.

More information about the safe use of machinery can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/puwer.htm

A is for Audit; B is for British Standards; C is for Continual Improvement

Audit is a review (or a check) of the management system and its compulsory elements. It is a snapshot of the activities that a company undertakes that prove compliance to the standard at the time of the audit.

British Standards are the standards produced by BSI Group which is incorporated under a Royal Charter, the objective of which to set up standards of quality for goods and services, and prepare and promote the general adoption of British Standards and schedules in connection there with and from time to time to revise, alter and amend such standards and schedules as experience and circumstances require

Continual Improvement is an on-going effort to improve products, services or processes by the business.

ISO 9001 Update Announced

It has been announced that the ISO 9001:2008 will be updated in 2015. This will make integration with other ISO standards much easier. Stay tuned and we will keep you posted on more news when it becomes available.

Covert recordings by employees

In the London Borough of Lewisham, an employee sought to rely on 39 hours of covert recordings, via the help of a Dictaphone in order to support her discrimination claim. She alleged that the employer’s notes of disciplinary and other meetings were either inaccurate or falsified.

Although the application to admit the evidence was refused because neither the original recordings nor the transcripts had been made available, the EAT confirmed that such recordings were not inadmissible simply because the way in which they had been obtained was distasteful.

So what should you do as an employer in this situation?

Clearly if an employer discovers that covert recoding is occurring, the matter should be immediately addressed.

Conduct such as this by an employee could be held to have destroyed the relationship of trust and confidence in itself and if an employee lies about making recordings, this could be used in relation to the employee’s credibility.

For more information on Employment Law or Health & Safety News visit B.I.G Business Services www.bigbusinessservices.com

Sponsorship renewed for ‘Chamber Maximise Your Membership’ Events

We are pleased to confirm that ISO Quality Services will continue to sponsor all Birmingham Chamber’s ‘Maximise Your Membership’ events until March 2014.

“There is a great synergy working with Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and we are delighted to renew our sponsorship for these events for a third year” commented ISO Quality Services Director, Jennifer Appleton. “we enjoy the events and have subsequently worked with a number of members in helping them achieve ISO certification”.

Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group Events Director, Henrik Court, said “we are very pleased to continue working with ISO Quality Services, they are a great team of people to work with and this association has proven to be mutually beneficial”.

ISO Quality Services has also extended its Event Partner agreement with the chamber, showing our further commitment to raising our profile in the West Midlands area.

If you interested to find out how Chamber membership can help your business contact the Birmingham Chamber on 0121 454 6171.

Networking Events – Come and See Us?

Hayward Wright American Breakfast Meeting
Date of Event 23/04/2013
Cost: £6 (Booking Essential)
Time: 07.30-09.30
Venue: Detroits, Jaguar House, Castle Street, Worcester WR1 3AD

Herefordshire Breakfast Event
Date of Event 26/04/2013
Cost: £18.00 Members (includes VAT) / £36.00 Non-members (includes VAT)
Time: 07.30-09.30
Venue: Burghill Valley Golf Club, Tillington Road, Herefordshire, HR4 7RW
Website – http://www.hwchamber.co.uk/

Constructionline – West Midlands Meet the Buyer Event
Date of Event 25/04/2013
Cost: FREE
Time: 08:30 – 15:00
Venue: International Suite, Renewal Conference Centre, Lode Lane, Solihull, B91 2JR
Website – http://www.constructionline.co.uk/static/events/wmidlandsMTB.html

Did You Know?

Most organisations shred less than half of all documents containing sensitive or confidential information before disposal?

Only 33% of organisations that have been recently surveyed collect documents from each office area for centralized in-house shredding? This means that employees are getting exposed to confidential or sensitive information, which is not meant for their viewing, while doing in-house shredding or simply disposing materials.

It can take just 7 days for a newspaper to go through the recycling process, transformed into recycled newsprint which is used to make the majority of Britain’s national daily newspapers.

It takes 48 full grown trees to make roughly 500 rolls of toilet paper. It approximately takes 384 trees to make the toilet paper that one man will use in his lifetime

If you would like to find out how to protect the security of the data in your business or how to destroy confidential matter in a secure way why not visit https://www.isoqsltd.com/iso-certification/iso-27001/ or https://www.isoqsltd.com/iso-certification/bs-en-15713/ to see how we would be able to help you achieve this in your business.

Newly Created Partnership for Cyber Liability Insurance

With businesses reliant on data and vulnerable to accidental or malicious losses Cyber liability insurance should be an essential part of their risk management. Historically Cyber Insurance has been seen for just the ‘bigger’ companies; however with premiums from just £400, Cyber Liability Insurance is now affordable for SME’s through Worcester based Insurance Consultants Sutcliffe and Co.

Cyber liability insurance can cover:

• Loss, damage or corruption of own data and third party data
• Business interruption / Lost income
• Forensic costs
• Legal defence costs and financial penalties by regulators
• Reputational & public relations costs
• Cyber extortion
• Notification costs and credit monitoring

We are pleased to confirm that ISO Quality Services has created a partnership with Sutcliffe and Co so that our clients who currently run to an ISO 27001 Information Security Management System will obtain a reduction on the cost of this Insurance (underwritten by AIG Insurance).

Sign up to environmental updates!

Keep up to date with the latest information from the Environment Agency and sign up for the business environmental updates, the link is as follows: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/news/139117.aspx simply insert your details in the spaces on the right hand side of the page.

Quality Manager Training Day – SOLD OUT

The recently advertised Quality Manager Training Day on the 22nd May at our offices in Worcester has now sold out. More dates for later in the year will follow soon for anyone who didn’t get chance to book. If you would like to register your interest for the next course email admin@isoqsltd.com today to be put straight onto the list!