Day 127 - 23 May 95 - Page 17
1 is greater and, therefore, you need to think about control
2 procedures.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Can we have a five-minute adjournment?
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
7
8 (Short Adjournment)
9
10 MR. RAMPTON: Mrs. Barnes, you were telling us about risk
11 assessment. As I have understood what you have told us so
12 far, you look at what the risks may be and you look at who
13 may be exposed to them, at what point in the service, as it
14 were; is that right?
15 A. That is right, yes. The whole point about risk
16 assessment was not only was it part of the Electricity at
17 Work Regulations that came out in 1990, and the control of
18 substances hazardous to health regulations or COSH, as they
19 are known, but also we could see that there were going to
20 be more regulations coming out from the EC with risk
21 assessment at the core, and with it being new the Company
22 felt then was the time to have somebody to go into more
23 depth with the technical aspects of health and safety so
24 that we were ready for those new regulations and could put
25 together a plan of how we were going to react to the
26 Electricity at Work Regulations and to COSH.
27
28 Q. I want to come back to that in a moment, but did you in
29 1990, perhaps, I know not, as a function of your new
30 position gain a Diploma of the National Executive Board of
31 Occupational Health and Safety?
32 A. I did, yes.
33
34 Q. That was a Diploma in Safety Management?
35 A. It was. It is equivalent to a post graduate one year
36 full time course.
37
38 Q. I see. When did you actually do that course then?
39 A. I believe I started in late 1990 and completed it at
40 the end of the following year, although I might be slightly
41 out on dates there.
42
43 Q. But were you able to continue with your work at McDonald's
44 at the same time?
45 A. I was, yes.
46
47 Q. So there was a lot of swotting in the evenings and that
48 kind of thing?
49 A. There was a lot of swotting in the evenings. I did it
50 by an open learning package and I also studied at home when
51 I needed to.
52
53 Q. Was that something that you decided to do or you were
54 encouraged to do by the Company?
55 A. It was both; they encouraged me to get appropriate
56 qualifications, although because previously I had an
57 experience of dealing with environmental health officers in
58 interpreting the law, I had not had in any experience in
59 health and safety.
60
