Policy: Management
Safety Policy Statement
Your health, safety, and welfare at work within the School of Infection & Immunity (Sii) are very important - we take this seriously and aspire to ensure for you a safe, secure and thus rewarding environment.
Your health, safety and welfare at work are protected by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 along with other regulations and approved codes of practice. The policy of the School of Infection & Immunity ensures that arrangements are in place at every level of operation to maintain a working environment where the health and physical safety of staff, students, visitors and other occupants of our School’s buildings are assured. These practices are compliant with the relevant statutes above.
Our policy covers all members of Sii. We note however that work ongoing in our school is located within several University and NHS buildings namely, the Sir Graeme Davis Building (Glasgow Biomedical Research Centre), Joseph Black Building and MRC-University of Glasgow CVR (located in Garscube campus buildings: Sir Michael Stoker Building, Henry Wellcome, Jarrett, Ian Botham, McRobert, and Urquhart). The school also has laboratory facilities within the McGregor Building, Western Infirmary along with clinical facilities at the Royal Infirmary and Gartnavel General Hospital. Staff at the Royal Infirmary and Gartnavel General Hospital are covered by CNORIS, a risk management scheme for the NHS Scotland.
Our policy supports and underpins University policy, which can be found in detail at the University of Glasgow Safety and Environmental Protection Services (SEPS). The school recognises that safety requirements enacted by law are set to a minimum standard. For this reason, the school is committed to constantly reviewing safety standards and, as far as resources permit, to continually improve these standards to thereby exceed base requirements. Our policy will further complement the university’s policy by describing the organisational structure for safety in the Institute and by indicating potential hazards and precautions required to prevent accidents and ill-health.
To achieve successful management of health and safety at work, every member of staff within the school must actively participate to ensure that they behave in a manner that will not adversely affect the welfare of colleagues. The implementation of this policy is carried out through the Head of School who has delegated responsibility through the Head of College and ultimately the University Court.
All staff, students and registered visitors are required to observe the health and safety rules and standards and adhere to the Sii Health and Safety Policy Statement. Deliberate deviation from established health and safety rules and standards may result in disciplinary action. This policy statement will be reviewed by the safety committee of the School of Infection & Immunity at least annually.
Policy objectives:
• To provide safety guidance for best working practices
• To enhance UofG safety policy with details specific to activities within the School
• To ensure training needs are recognised and applied to ensure a safe working environment
To the extent that any individual has control over a University resource, he or she must also accept responsibility for this aspect of its performance. Thus, every member of staff who manages or directly supervises the work of others is responsible for their health and safety. They must make sure that colleagues, students and visitors understand what they must do to ensure their own safety and the safety of others.
Signed Safety Policy Statement (1 March 2023)
This policy supports and underpins University policy, which can be found in detail at the university Safety and Environmental Protection Services (SEPS).
Mode of Operation
The School’s Executive oversees the development and efficacy of mechanisms for the implementation of safety policy by ensuring that policy proposals submitted by the Safety Committee are properly considered and that accepted proposals are supported by adequate resources.
Delegation of Duties
See flow chart for hierarchy of management of safety within the School.
| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| Head of College | Prof Iain McInnes |
| Head of School | Prof Andy Waters |
| Convenor of School Health and Safety committee | Prof Tansy Hammerton |
| Head of Professional Services | Ms Alison Marshall |
| Technical & Building Manager (SGDB) | Dr Susan Gannon |
School Safety Committee
|
Name |
Role/area |
|
Phone ext |
Room number |
|
Tansy Hammarton |
Chair/GM |
6766 |
SGDB B625 |
|
|
Susan Gannon |
Technical & Building Manager (SGDB) |
|
7147 |
SGDB B408 |
|
Richard McCulloch |
Parasitology/SAPO |
5946 |
SGDB B618 |
|
|
Gillian Parker |
Parasitology/CL3 |
8282 |
SGDB B621 |
|
|
Hua Wang |
Bacteriology |
|
SGDB |
|
|
Suzie Humphrey |
Bacteriology/L2 |
|
SGDB B232 |
|
|
Neil Basu |
Clinical/Immunology |
1718 |
SGDB |
|
|
Aude Aumeunier |
Biological Safety Manager CVR |
|
6270 |
CVR |
|
Angela Elliot |
CVR |
3155 |
CVR |
|
|
Joyce Mitchell |
CVR |
2927 |
CVR |
|
|
Alice Gallagher |
Biological Safety Adviser/SEPS |
7105 |
SEPS |
Role of the Safety Committee
The safety committee will provide guidance and advise on health and safety issues within the School, namely to address concerns and to monitor general compliance with health and safety regulations. The committee will meet approximately three times a year to discuss and address matters of concern and to update the policy if necessary. Safety audits will be carried out at least once a year to ensure all areas of the Institute remain safe environments to work in and to provide help and advise on any improvements that may be required.
The convenor of the group maintains communication with the Head of School, to whom issues requiring higher management decisions will be reported. The School’s Executive oversees the development and efficacy of mechanisms for the implementation of safety policy by ensuring that policy proposals submitted by the Safety Committee are properly considered and that accepted proposals are supported by adequate resources.
Mode of Operation
Safety issues should be reported to the convenor of the School Safety Committee, Professor Tansy Hammarton (tansy.hammarton@glasgow.ac.uk), or in her absence, Dr Susan Gannon (susan.gannon@glasgow.ac.uk)
Building user groups exist for Gilmorehill sites and CVR-Garscube. Concerns regarding Health and Safety issues raised at any of these groups will be presented to the School Safety Committee for discussion.
Principal Investigators (PIs)
All principal investigators have responsibility to ensure that all staff and students working with them are aware of their safety responsibilities within any laboratory in which they work and ensure that they do not put themselves or other authorised people working within the area at risk.
To the extent that any individual has control over a University resource, he or she must also accept responsibility for this aspect of its performance. All concerns over issues of safety should be brought to the attention of the senior technician on each floor in the first instance. Anyone contravening implicit or explicit safety guidelines may be subject to University disciplinary proceedings and possible legal action.
Students are not subject to the same legal obligations as employees but they still have a certain level of legal responsibility. The University expects that postgraduate researchers who work independently will exercise due regard to those working around them and who may be affected by their work. Note: undergraduate students are NOT permitted to work without supervision by trained laboratory staff while carrying out project work.
Visitors are not subject to the same legal obligations as employees although they have duty to work safely. All visitors must report to Reception in the relevant building.
Visiting research workers must ensure that they are aware of, and comply with, the Sii Safety Regulations. Responsibility for the safe working of visitors resides with the person inviting the visitor. The Head of School, or other appropriate senior member of staff, should be made aware of the presence of visiting workers, the duration of their stay and the nature of their work.
This staff member will also be responsible for ensuring that the visitor is trained to the appropriate standard of safety before any experimental work commences.
Out with normal hours, visitors must have specific permission to be in School buildings.
Service engineers and contractors should only be given authorisation for access to laboratories by the designated person for that area who will ensure that all safety requirements are fulfilled.
To support the implementation of the School's policy document, guidelines on the following are available from the School safety web pages
General Regulations
- Day to Day Activities (including general laboratory safety guidelines)
- Accidents
- Biohazards
- Chemical hazards
- Electrical equipment and PAT testing
- Fire safety
- First-aid
- Liquid nitrogen: Cryogenic substances
- Manual handling
- New and expectant mothers
- Office Safety
- Out of hours working/lone working
- Radiation
- Safe use of display screen equipment: Computers
- Use of equipment
- Waste disposal
HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY
I have received, read and understood the above safety policy.
This policy supersedes all previous School regulations regarding Health and Safety.
Signed ……………………………………………………..
Date……………………………
Print Name……………………………………………….
Location…………………………………………………….
Please return completed form to:
Dr Susan Gannon (SGDB & Gilmorehill)
Joyce Mitchell (CVR-Garscube)
Angela Elliott (CVR-Garscube)