The National Access & Scaffolding Confederation has reiterated its claim that only by using regulated scaffolding firms can businesses be certain of receiving a higher and safer standard of scaffolding practice than that carried out by non-regulated operators.
In its annual safety report, launched earlier this month, the NASC details all reportable incidents by its member companies throughout the last 12 month and includes, for the first time, a correlation between the NASC’s figures for scaffolding fatalities and those published by the HSE for scaffolding and construction in general.
The report analysis is based on type of accident, age of operative, cause, company size, and type of injury. Figures are laid out in chart or tabular format, and are compared on a yearly basis.
The report shows there was a staggering 30 per cent reduction in falls from height compared with the previous year, and an overall drop of 19 per cent in all incidents involving NASC operatives. The majority of incidents were related to manual handling, prompting the NASC to revise its guidance in this area (SG6:10 ‘Manual Handling in the Scaffolding Industry’).
“The statistics speak for themselves,” said Bob Whincap, the organisation’s president. “Our safety report is testament to the fact that NASC companies perform safer. It is forensic in its detail; we want to be able to objectively show people that what the NASC is doing does make a difference and that before choosing to adopt an NASC-only policy within your organisation, you are making an informed choice.”
The 16-page annual safety report (available in printed or digital format) is available directly from the NASC – email [email protected] to receive a copy.
Check the back inside cover talpidae, you’ll see that NASC members statistics are lower than the HSE’s industry statistics which include non-NASC members.
Where in the report is the evidence that NASC member companies are performing safer than non member companies? I must have missed that, in fact the report shows no statistics from non member companies. So any claim that NASC companies are safer is unfounded. That’s not to say improvements have not been made by NASC members, but they’ve made by non members also.