Health & Safety for Factories, Manuafacturing and Engineering

Navigating Your Regulatory Obligations

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) enforcement regimes and stringent employer liability underwriting criteria mean that statutory compliance is a significant issue. In manufacturing facilities and engineering workshops, operational hazards require continuous and written records of oversight.

A serious workplace incident will incur far more than immediate disruption. It exposes an organisation to regulatory interventions, potential Fee for Intervention (FFI) costs, heightened insurance premiums and takes up a significant amount of management time.

Operational and Compliance Challenges for Industrial Operators

Senior leaders and operational managers frequently navigate a complex balance between productivity targets and legal obligations including the following:

• Regulatory Scrutiny and Enforcement Exposure: Managing the liabilities associated with unannounced HSE inspections and insurer-mandated risk improvement requirements.
• Complex Machinery and Plant Governance: Aligning statutory standards (e.g. PUWER and manual handling regulations) with high-throughput production lines and workshop practices.
• Administrative Overhead and Diversion: Expending management hours addressing incident investigations, reporting, and procedural rectification.
• Specialist Resource Constraints: Requiring competent and knowledgeable safety oversight without the ongoing cost of a safety manager on the payroll.

Solutions from McCormack Benson Health & Safety

McCormack Benson Health and Safety (MBHS) acts as an external advisory partner, delivering pragmatic, compliant advice tailored to the realities of your industrial operations. We conduct on-site evaluations, provide defensible risk management protocols and support internal management teams in maintaining safety standards without impeding productivity.

Our core services include:

1. Competent Person Service

• The Requirement: Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations mandates that employers appoint one or more competent persons to assist in undertaking statutory health and safety measures.
• Our Solution: MBHS serves as your formally appointed Competent Person, providing access to qualified safety consultants with responsive technical advice whenever H&S issues arise.

2. Tailored Health & Safety Policy

• The Requirement: Employers with five or more personnel must maintain an up-to-date, documented Health and Safety Policy detailing organisational structure, responsibilities, and operational arrangements.
• Our Solution: We conduct an initial operational review to draft your bespoke policy that defines organisational accountability, reporting hierarchies and HSE expected site standards.

3. Risk Assessments of Activities (Including Equipment Utilisation)

• The Requirement: Comprehensive risk assessments must be developed and recorded for significant operational workflows, mechanical plant, tools and material handling tasks.
• Our Solution: We develop risk assessments across machinery, plant safeguarding and workshop processes, establishing clear, practical control hierarchies that mitigate risk.

4. Fire Risk Assessments

• The Requirement: Commercial and industrial premises must maintain a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment in compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.
• Our Solution: We develop your fire safety evaluations addressing hot works, storage of combustible and flammable substances, escape compartmentation, alarm systems and site emergency arrangements.

5. Health and Safety Compliance Audits

• The Requirement: Periodic formal audits are essential to benchmark safety management systems against statutory requirements and detect systemic weaknesses proactively.
• Our Solution: We conduct structural audits against relevant UK safety standards, delivering clear executive reports that prioritise risk issues and provide actionable solutions. This provides continuous improvement to maintain regulatory alignment in the event of a HSE visit or insurance claim

6. Practical Safety Inspections

• The Requirement: Site inspections are required to confirm that control measures, guarding, housekeeping and operational rules remain continuously effective.
• Our Solution: We carry out practical inspections across your production, fabrication and storage areas, identifying hazards early and maintaining safe working standards on the shop floor

Why Partner with MBHS?

• Applied Sector Experience: Our advisory approach is rooted in practical manufacturing and engineering realities. We aim to provide you proportionate and effective advice.
• Sustainable Knowledge Transfer: We instigate defensible H&S systems through advising internal managers and developing their knowledge of appropriate H&S risk management.
• Defensible Governance: We assist your business to fulfil its insurer requirements, protect your staff from preventable harm and remain prepared for regulatory scrutiny.