8. Physical hazards at work

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Key changes and developments since last year

• the government has set out how it will take forward Dame Judith Hackitt’s 50 recommendations on building regulations and fire safety following the Grenfell Tower fire through a Building a Safer Future programme of reforms. The fire brigades’ FBU union and other organisations say the government is not going far enough or fast enough to improve fire safety in buildings;

• the Royal Opera House has lost its appeal against a landmark Court of Appeal ruling on acoustic shock;

• new Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2019 have come into force and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has proposed a new Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) to provide statutory guidance on the new regulations;

• the HSE published a new edition of the ACOP and guidance on the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations after the regulations were amended in April 2018.

Manual handling musculoskeletal disorders (also known as MSDs), including back pain and RSI, have consistently been among the most commonly reported type of work-related illness. HSE statistics show that 469,000 workers were suffering from work-related musculoskeletal disorders (new or longstanding) in 2017-18, according to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and 6.6 million working days were lost due to work-related musculoskeletal disorders that year. They account for 35% of all work-related illness, second only to stress, anxiety and depression, which account for 44%.