Eleven HSE inspectors visited the Isle of Wight over two days earlier this month and inspected 33 businesses.
Breaches of health and safety law were identified on 84% of sites visited, resulting in four prohibition notices, 37 improvement notices and numerous instances of written advice being issued.
Companies checked ranged from boatbuilders to engineering firms, from small businesses to large industry-leading firms with hundreds of employees. Issues found included badly maintained electrics, unguarded machinery, unsafe working at height taking, lack of control of exposure to wood dust, welding fume or other substances hazardous to health and poor welfare facilities.
HSE Principal Inspector Nancy Harman, who led the project, said: “Although we did identify some good practice on the Isle of Wight, there were numerous areas where risks to health and safety were not being properly managed and where improvements were needed.
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“As a result of our intervention, we hope to have educated and informed businesses about the measures that they need to have in place to ensure that everyone goes home from work safely and without risks to their health.
“This inspection programme forms part of our ongoing work on the Isle of White and across Hampshire and we will be following up on the premises we visited and others in the coming months.
“By concentrating our resources at the same time, it allowed us to be more efficient in making sure businesses are putting good control measures in place and that the health and safety of workers is at the top of the agenda for everyone.”
The last large-scale inspection visit like this to the Isle of Wight took place in 2019, before the Covid pandemic.
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