Health and Safety Policy and Risk Assessment Guidance for the

Estate Manager, Gamekeeper, Stalker and Ghillie

Health and Safety Policy and

Risk

Assessment Guidance

for the

Estate Manager, Gamekeeper,

Stalker and Ghillie

March 2009

by

Charlie Parkes OBE and John Thornley OBE

ParkesThornley Associates

ParkesThornley Associates

consultants investigators and trainers in countryside law

Charlie Parkes OBE and John Thornley OBE

We are consultants, investigators and trainers in all aspects of countryside law & practice and deliver excellent training that makes a difference.

We specialise in the investigation of sporting shooting incidents for insurance companies, police forces or individuals.

We have worked with many organisations including: English Nature, British Association for Shooting and Conservation, National Gamekeepers Organisation, The Game Conservancy, National Trust, police forces, RSPB, RSPCA, DEFRA, the Deer Initiative and National Pest Technicians Association.

We are experienced firearms users and were awarded our OBEs for services to the protection of wildlife. We are retired Senior Officers of the Derbyshire Constabulary and are recognised legal consultants in Countryside Law and authors and of the books Fair Game and Deer: Law & Liabilities.

We have designed advisory documents, booklets and codes of practice and deliver training for countryside professional including the night shooting certificate for the National Gamekeepers Organisation and the National Pest Technicians Association.

In 2005 we provided expert evidence in a night shooting fatality in Devon at the request of the Devon and Cornwall Police.

Training Courses

Night shooting – Risks and Liabilities

This course was developed from a request by the National Gamekeepers Organisation to demonstrate safety and professionalism. The course has expanded and developed over several years drawing on the experience of many attendees from across the country. We see it as vital health and safety training for those employed in the control of deer and vermin by day or night and for those involved in a non-professional recreational activity.

This certificated half-day course is aimed at a wide range of people with particular relevance to those involved in estate management, gamekeeping, pest control and deer management.

Shooting at night is potentially a high-risk activity for participants and the public at large. There have been several serious and fatal accidents in recent years. We have been professionally involved in some of these cases by advising and assisting in their investigation.

Course objectives –

  • To increase knowledge and confidence of a professional and competent gamekeeper, stalker, ghillie, pest controller, farmer, landowner and any person using firearms for the control of pest species, ground game and deer, with a specific emphasis on the additional dangers related to night shooting.
  • To raise awareness of the risks to public safety
  • To increase legal knowledge base
  • To discuss and adopt codes of practice
  • To compile a Health and Safety policy, risk assessments and safe systems of working
  • To appreciate the implications of firearm certificate conditions
  • To address security risks associated with firearms
  • To identify the vicarious liabilities for landowners and employers

The course covers –

  • Lawful target species
  • The legality of shooting from vehicles
  • Night shooting with a lamp
  • Shooting from and over public rights of way
  • Firearm certificate conditions
  • Firearm safety
  • Health and Safety, safe systems of working and risk assessments
  • Insurance
  • Codes of practice

Students are provided with a Certificate itemising the above content and our CD containing over forty documents including everything needed to compile a Health and Safety policy and detailed risk assessments.

The certificate amounts to a training record for the individual and the estate.

Loader Training

In 2007 we produced a course for loaders following requests from shoot owners as a means of meeting their management commitment to health and safety and appropriate levels of risk management.

A significant part of the input relates to care of the client and his/her equipment.

This half-day certificated course covers:

  • Health and safety, safe systems of working and risk assessments,
  • Estate policy, expectations and training,
  • Firearm knowledge, handling, safety and security,
  • Shooting law,
  • Shotgun certificate conditions,
  • Etiquette,
  • Caring for the client,
  • Lawful target species,
  • Insurance and Codes of practice.

Attendees take a theory test and are subsequently assessed in the field on by a shoot manager on a driven game shoot prior to a certificate being awarded.

The documentation amounts to a training record for the individual loader and the estate.

Stalking Liabilities

We are currently designing a Stalking Liabilities course based on our book Deer: Law and Liabilities revised in 2008.

Organising courses

Our method is that if you have a group of people, a room and a kettle we will come to you. Night shooting and loading courses are based on a modest per head cost and have proved to be popular and effective. You may wish to add to the fee as a fundraiser or use it to generate interest amongst members and attract non-members.

Generic Health and Safety Policy and Risk Assessment Guidance

for the Estate Manager, Gamekeeper, Stalker and Ghillie

Introduction

This generic risk assessment was devised in response to a request from the Head Keeper at one of the leading pheasant and partridge double-gun shoots in England.

It aims to manage the risk posed by the inexperienced gun by the use of trained loaders, shoot captain and staff.

The contents may be excessive for smaller shoots, especially the typical syndicate of friends who shoot with each other on a weekly basis. However such shoots still need to meet their statutory duties to comply with Health and Safety legislation.

Failure to comply with these statutory duties could result in heavy fines and/or the shoot being closed down with immediate effect.

You may find that a risk assessment is also a requirement of your insurers.

Ideally those involved in shoot management should:

  • sit round a computer and agree what is relevant for their situation
  • extract the relevant material from the document and
  • modify the contents to produce an assessment relevant to your circumstances and level of risk

Contents

This document uses hyperlinks [sections in blue underlined] By clicking on the item you will be taken to the start of the item in the document. To return click the blue arrow on your tool bar above.

Safety Policy

© ParkesThornley Associates 2003 Page 90 of 90© 2009 March ParkesThornley Associates - 1 -

Health and Safety Policy and Risk Assessment Guidance for the

Estate Manager, Gamekeeper, Stalker and Ghillie

Disclaimer

Written safety policy

H&S poster

RIDDOR

Conducting a riskassessment

Training and briefing

Consultationand Review policy

Hazard and risk

Shoot Captain’sbriefing

© ParkesThornley Associates 2003 Page 90 of 90© 2009 March ParkesThornley Associates - 1 -

Health and Safety Policy and Risk Assessment Guidance for the

Estate Manager, Gamekeeper, Stalker and Ghillie

Transport of beaters

Horses and shooting

Shoot disruption

Loan of shotgun

© ParkesThornley Associates 2003 Page 90 of 90© 2009 March ParkesThornley Associates - 1 -

Health and Safety Policy and Risk Assessment Guidance for the

Estate Manager, Gamekeeper, Stalker and Ghillie

Risk assessments
  • Access to land
  • ATV’s
  • Beating, picking-up, loading and shooting
  • Burning moorland vegetation
  • Catering
  • Control of pests and predators with a rifle [not deer]
  • Deermanagement
  • Electrical safety
  • Firesafety
  • Game larder
  • Game rearing
  • Gameshooting
  • Horses
  • Manual handling
  • Overhead power lines
  • Shoot disruption
  • Steam cleaners and pressure washers
  • Transportation of employees and participants
  • Tree felling
  • Tree surgery
  • Useof brush cutter and hand tools
  • Useof Chainsaw
  • Use of wheeled/tracked/ machinery and attachments
  • Use of wire
  • Vermincontrol
  • Working on inland waters
  • Working outdoors/alone
  • Workshop

Briefing sheets

Beaters

Cattle – see beaters and loaders

Loaders

Shoot disruption procedures

Transport of beaters

Horses and Shooting - a safety code

Disclaimer

The information in this document is true and complete to the best of our knowledge and has been provided free of charge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the Authors who also disclaim any liability incurred in connection with the use of this data or specific details.

You may need to seek further advice from your solicitor, your insurance company, the Health and Safety Executive Agricultural Inspector or the police. Information is contained in HSE priced and free leaflets. There is a specific booklet on Health and Safety and training for Gamekeepers. See

Why do I need a safety policy and risk assessments?

Shoots may not have attracted the attention of the Health and Safety Executive [HSE] in the past but visits are now being made by HSE Inspectors to ensure compliance with the law. Failure to comply with the law can involve severe penalties following prosecution and severe penalties.of individual gamekeepers and/or others involved in shoot management. Secondly the shoot could be closed down until changes are made and there may be implications for your insurance andinsurance. Forest Enterprise, some councils and landowners are requiring risk assessments prior to the grant or renewal of a shooting lease.

What the law says

If you are an employer or a self-employed person who ‘conducts an undertaking’ involving game shooting you have a duty under section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to take all reasonably practicable steps so no-one is put at risk. In this sense an undertaking does not necessarily need to involve commercial gain. To do this effectively you need to systematically identify all relevant hazards and then decide the likelihood of anyone being injured. This document shows some of the main areas you need to consider.

If you are employed as a gamekeeper, stalker or ghillie you have a legal duty to co-operate with your employer on health and safety matters and to take reasonable care - not only for your own health and safety - but also for that of anyone else who may be put at risk by your work.

Employees also have a responsibility. For example On shoot days all keepers, loaders, stops, beaters and drivers are employees and have a personal responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others.

When does a shoot helper become an employee for health and safety purposes? Most examples are obvious where persons are subject to payments, contracts etc. but a person is likely to be considered an employee where one person has control over another in the form of a master-servant relationship. Beaters may well help/work for nothing more than access to other forms of shooting on the estate, a Beater’s Day or two at the end of the season and these may be seen as reward for their labours. Even if no such benefits exist and the beater turns up for the fun of it then they would surely be under the control of a shoot captain or keeper directing them where to go and what to do.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers and self-employed persons to assess the risks to employees and to persons not in their employment.

Where five or more persons are employed the significant findings of the risk assessments (those which could result in serious injury) and any group of employees identified as being at special risk, must be recorded, together with the action taken, or being taken, to control the hazards. Risk assessments must also be reviewed periodically or if circumstances change.

RIDDOR - Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences 1995

Employers, self-employed or persons in control of work premises have duties under RIDDOR to immediately notify [e.g. by telephone] the Health and Safety Executive in the following circumstances:

  • If an employee or self-employed person is killed or suffers a major injury [including as a result of physical violence] or
  • a member of the public is killed or taken to hospital or
  • an employee suffers from a reportable disease e.g. poisoning, leptospirosis, tuberculosis, tetanus, Lyme disease or
  • if something happens which could have resulted in a reportable injury, or
  • a person is unable to work for three or more days

A written accident/diseaseaccident or disease report is also required within 10 days on Form 2508.2508 or 2508A respectively. Reports can also be filed via the RIDDOR site at which also contains details of all reportable injuries and diseases.

Records of injuries, disease and dangerous occurrences must be kept for three years.

Health and Safety Poster

The Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989 (HSIER) require employers to provide their employees with certain basic information concerning their health, safety and welfare at work. This information is contained in both a poster and a leaflet approved by HSE. Employers can comply with their duty by either displaying the poster or providing employees with a copy of the leaflet. . Employers can obtain copies of the poster and leaflet from HSE Books. The leaflet is also available on HSE’s Web site.

Preparing your safety policy

The circumstances, risks and hazards relating to game shooting are not relevant or common to all shoots, consequently it is not possible to adopt a common or model policy for all. However a simple pro-forma entitled “Stating your business” is now available free on the internet from the HSE website at Completion of the form will show who does what: and when and how they do it.

The general aim of your policy may be to provide a safe environment for all involved in the enjoyment of driven game shooting. This would be detailed in a statement of intent.

The policy then specifies responsibilities within the organisation or management structure e.g.

  • estate owner  estate agent  head keeper  under keeper or
  • estate owner  estate agent  syndicate  head keeper  under keeper

It then identifies:

who will conduct risk assessments

how the policy will be implemented

  • who has overall responsibility for implementation e.g. shoot captain

who has what responsibilities under the policy e.g. keepers and loaders

  • how employees will be appraised and consulted
  • how it will be reviewed and updated

It could also include, first aid, emergency procedures, reporting accidents, safeguarding visitors, delegation of responsibilities, training and briefing.

Consultation, Implementation and Review

Consultation is a vital part of involving those persons involved in the work activity and/or implementation of the control measures. The dates of consultation and those consulted should be documented. When you have assessed the risks and written your policy it needs to be agreed by those implementing it. On completion the safety policy and assessments should be signed and dated.

Ensure employees are given a personal copy against receipt and that there is access to a copy in the workplace.

Explanation, briefing or training may be required. The assessments can form the basis of a training manual and/or programme e.g. for a new employee on the basis that this is the way we do things on this estate. The philosophy being that non-compliance is not an option.

Copies or relevant risk assessments should also be issued to all guests/visitors who use the estate for sporting purposes e.g. users of rifles.

The documents then need to be implemented in the workplace and checks made to ensure compliance. Again it would be wise to record the result of compliance checks and any remedial action required.

It is also essential to update the policy and assessments:

  • assessments following accidents or incidents,
  • as new risks arise, arise,
  • circumstances change, change,
  • in the light of experience or or
  • changes in employees or the organisation
  • organisation. change in legislation.

Regardless of these factors a review should be a regular event e.g. annually so a review date should be established.

The Acid RestTest

The Acid RestTest is whether your policy has been put in place. The true test of your health and safety measures will be the conditions in your workplace not how well the policy is written. It needs to be a living, working document – not filed and forgotten!

Training and briefing of employees

Our Loaders, Stalking liabilities and night shooting courses are relevant training and demonstrate a commitment to training and briefing your staff and shoot helpers.

See notices for beaters and loaders below.

Gamekeepers and shoot captains should be fully aware of the policy and risk assessment and trained or briefed in all aspects. It would be wise for this to be documented and for a copy to be issued to the employee. This process should be repeated for new employees.

Beaters, loaders and pickers up should be made aware of their specific duties and responsibilities. It is now common practice for the notices provided to be modified by the estate and given to shoot staff at the start of the season.

We are also aware that shoot organisers will supply safety briefings for the gun and his personal loader by post prior to the day.

The Shoot Captain’s Briefing

Whatever the scale of your shoot, be it a formal organised let day, syndicate or rough shoot, someone should take on the responsibility for safety and to brief the guns. Such a specific responsibility would be recorded in the written safety policy.

There is no specific legal requirement to perform a briefing except that Health and Safety law requires action to ensure a safe workplace and prevent harm to any individual. However, if the day goes wrong resulting in serious injury or fatality such matters will be investigated by the police, the Health and Safety Executive and/or insurance companies. Prosecution and/or civil claim could follow.