Issue - meetings

This report gives an overview of the Health & Safety (H&S) governance arrangements, key risks and activity in operation during 2016/17. It also gives a progress update on the newly formed H&S shared service formed by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) and City of York Council (CYC) operating under a collaboration agreement.

Resolved:           That the following be noted and agreed:

a)   the governance arrangements in place, in addition to the key H&S risks together with the council’s response to managing and responding to those risks;

b)   the progress made in establishing and commencing the H&S shared service;

c)   the focus of current and future work and that a follow-up report summarising any H&S activity following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower be considered at a future Decision Session under this portfolio.

Reason:              To ensure the Executive Member and residents are assured that H&S services are resilient and the council has proper arrangements in place for managing and responding to H&S risks.

The Executive Member considered a report giving an overview of the Health and Safety (H & S) governance arrangements, key risks and activity in operation during 2016/17. The report also provided a progress update on newly formed H & S shared service formed by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) and City of York Council (CYC) operating under a collaboration agreement.

The Assistant Director for Customer & Digital Services was in attendance to give an overview of the report and explained that a minimum of two reports per year would be presented to the Executive Member to give reassurance about the H & S measures implemented by shared services. It was noted that the Health & Safety Shared Service Agreement could be found on the CYC website: https://www.york.gov.uk/downloads/file/13454/shared_service_agreement. It was further noted that the regional discussion on lessons learned from the incident at Grenfell Tower would be held on 12 July 2017 and that its outcomes would be reported to the Executive Member through the Decision Session. Following on the query from the Executive Member, it was added that no evidence of use of dangerous materials (such as aluminium composites) in CYC buildings was found as part of the recent investigation.

Following on the recent incident where a man died following falling from York’s city walls, the risk assessment for the walls was reviewed by the Council’s Health and Safety team and no evidence was found that the incident had been related to the condition of the walls. This was reported to the inquest held following the incident. The Shared Head of Health and Safety explained that, subject to consultation with Historic England, some preventative measures may be put into place; their nature would be reported in due course.

The Executive Member thanked the Officers for their work and it was

Resolved:           That the following be noted and agreed:

a)   the governance arrangements in place, in addition to the key H&S risks together with the council’s response to managing and responding to those risks;

b)   the progress made in establishing and commencing the H&S shared service;

c)   the focus of current and future work and that a follow-up report summarising any H&S activity following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower be considered at a future Decision Session under this portfolio.

Reason:              To ensure the Executive Member and residents are assured that H&S services are resilient and the council has proper arrangements in place for managing and responding to H&S risks.