Day 127 - 23 May 95 - Page 55
1 the safety circle, in the HSE report?
2 A. It was, yes. We had a pilot scheme running in the
3 Midlands in 1991.
4
5 Q. Yes.
6 A. And it was one of the things that we committed to in
7 our response to the recommendations, but we had already
8 started to roll it out in a bigger way by the end of 1992.
9
10 Q. Do you know -- you might do -- what structures or systems
11 have been in place in the restaurants before that
12 specifically to gather information from the crew members,
13 opinion and information about safety concerns?
14 A. Well, safety had always been one of the items on the
15 rap session.
16
17 Q. Rap sessions?
18 A. Get togethers, when a selection of the crew sit down
19 with somebody who is external to the restaurant, and it is
20 -- one of the things that they would go through would be
21 safety issues if they have anything to bring up,
22 particularly filtering, use of the compactor, the higher
23 risk areas in the restaurant.
24
25 Q. What about the crew meetings? Were safety matters
26 discussed ever at the crew meetings, do you know?
27 A. Certainly, safety would be one of the things that
28 they would address. Crew meetings are routinely used to
29 address any concerns brought up at rap sessions. So there
30 certainly would be that two way communication.
31
32 Q. Thank you. Can we go back to the document at the bottom of
33 the first side of it, first column, "Complete accident book
34 of every employee accident or near miss or any customer
35 accident resulting in any injury" -- forget about
36 customers, Mrs. Barnes, they are nothing to do with this
37 case -- "complete incident report form if accident is
38 reportable, employee absent due to accident, any customer
39 accident incident."
40
41 Am I right that appears to suggest a wider requirement for
42 insertion in the incident report form than is required by
43 RIDDOR?
44 A. That is correct, yes.
45
46 Q. Then at the top of the next column we see the EHO's office
47 and out of office phone numbers, and then something about
48 notifiable dangerous occurrences. I do not think we are
49 concerned about that. You, again, have to complete an
50 incident report form in the event of any dangerous
51 occurrence. Then there is a wholly separate box about
52 electricity with an exclamation mark and a blue background
53 and some words which I do not need to read out. How long
54 has this document been in the restaurants in the manager's
55 office?
56 A. In this format?
57
58 Q. Yes.
59 A. About 18 months.
60
