Day 128 - 24 May 95 - Page 05
1 I cannot remember myself writing them in the accident book,
2 they would be the sort of accidents I would expect to go in
3 there. Yes, I mean, they -- I suppose they are all
4 important, but those sorts of accidents are the sorts that
5 are useful for the Restaurant Manager to keep an eye on
6 locally, just to see if there is any trend. All of those
7 I was very new, perhaps not thinking totally what I was
8 doing.
9
10 Q. They were when you were a Trainee Manager?
11 A. Yes.
12
13 Q. When you were made, is it, Head of Safety ---
14 A. In 1990, yes.
15
16 Q. -- yes ---
17 A. Health and Safety Officer.
18
19 Q. -- you did not have any experience in health and safety?
20 A. Not in health and safety legislation and its practice,
21 no, but I did have in other legislation to do with food
22 safety, having worked in quality assurance.
23
24 Q. You mean hygiene?
25 A. Yes, and also dealing with Environmental Health
26 Officers who obviously deal with the enforcement side of
27 it. It was felt that my background would make me ideal to
28 learn about health and safety, if you like, and learn about
29 the legislation.
30
31 Q. But not just in terms of legislation, had you ever had any
32 specific training in prevention of accidents and things
33 like that?
34 A. At that time, no, but it is one of the first things
35 that I arranged was to start my course, my NEBOSH diploma
36 course. It is a postgraduate health and safety course we
37 talked about. At that time, as well, we still had the use
38 of Chris Purslow, as an outside control.
39
40 Q. Right, so you arranged the course?
41 A. I contacted Portsmouth University, as it is now.
42
43 Q. When you started, were you instructed to do that?
44 A. It was one of the things I agreed with Andrew Taylor
45 and Carmel Flatley, whom I was reporting to at the time,
46 that I, obviously, would learn, so we had somebody
47 internally who had the qualifications, safety professional
48 qualifications. They felt it was time not purely to rely
49 on people outside the Company for that expertise.
50
51 Q. Which had been the situation up to then?
52 A. The specific qualifications, yes, but all the personnel
53 people go through health and safety training as part of
54 their IPM course, their Institute of Personnel Management
55 Course.
56
57 Q. How much training is that?
58 A. I do not know because I have not done the course
59 myself.
60
