Accidents, Collisions and a £325,000 data breach

In 2017, The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited the Grounds Maintenance department owned and run by Folkestone & Hythe District Council  and a number of contraventions were investigated. The most significant was a failure to comply with the Hand Arm Vibration regulations. There were also significant contraventions of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 according to Report Number AuG/18/23 which will come before Audit & Governance Committee tonight at 7pm. The resposnible officers for this report are Alastair Clifford, Operations Manage, Andy Blaszkowicz  Assistant Director (pictured left) and the Cabinet Member with responsibility is Cllr Dick Pascoe (pictured)

There has been a slight increase in the number of recorded accidents up from 8 in 2017 to 14 in 2018. As the largest service area within the Council, grounds maintenance remains as the department with highest related risks. The number of Council staff driving vehicles involved in road traffic collisions rose to 20 incidents from 14 in the calendar years 17-18. To address this the council has started a driving assessor scheme. Below are the number

The number of Insurance claims for accidents in 2017 was 104. This decreased slightly in 2018 to 102.

The Costs for these accidents have fallen dramatically according to table 11 in Report AuG/18/23.

However, the most concerning thing about this report is that in 2017/18, the Council set aside £325,000 for a potential claim for Data Protection Breach. At that time the maximum fine the Information Commissioner’s Office could issue was half a million pounds, so that data breach by the Council is quite significant.

It is more than likely the data breach we reported to the Council in August 2017, where the names, addresses and pay data belonging to the dead, disabled persons and temporary staff employed by the Council was released in contravention of the Data Protection Act 1998.

The HAVS and COSHH contraventions investigations and actions have been considered closed by the Health & Safety Executive, but the fine by the ICO well, that is significant and ongoing.

We will bring you more on this report in the not to distant future.

The Shepwayvox Team

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