Production HEALTH AND SAFETY ASSESSING THE RISKS
Sing If You Can: risk-assessment is key, says health and safety adviser Clem Leneghan
Keeping out of harm’s way M
ention the words ‘health and safety’ in the context of the workplace and it’s hard not
to recall scenes of Gareth from The Office lecturing staff on the hidden dangers of hot coffee. Yet a rash of widely publicised accidents on film and television shoots over the past couple of years is cause for concern. Earlier this year, a coroner’s court
heard how the re-enactment of a medi- eval joust for an episode of Channel 4’s Time Team ended in the death of one of its actors when a splinter went through the eyehole of his helmet. Another case to hit the headlines
was the death of cameraman Conway Wickliffe, after the 4x4 he was travel- ling in hit a tree while rehearsing for Batman film The Dark Knight. A third high-profile on-set accident
resulted in the paralysis of Daniel Radcliffe’s young stunt double David Holmes, who was injured in 2009 while rehearsing a stunt on the set of the first of the two Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows films.
28 | Broadcast | 1 July 2011
‘You can have a stunt if you can afford the time, but otherwise write it out of the script or leave things to the
imagination’ Julian Spencer, stunt co-ordinator
Thankfully, such accidents are rare
in the UK. According to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics, there have been only two industry fatalities over the past five years and 156 reported non-fatal major injuries. The issue of health and safety does,
however, pose challenges for a reces- sion-hit industry with a transient workforce, as Bectu assistant general secretary Martin Spence notes: “Where people are permanently employed at broadcasters and prod- uction companies, there are safety reps, which the law allows for. The problem is that when the Health and Safety At Work Act [1974] was written, it assumed that everyone was employed. It’s much harder to regu- late freelance activity. Freelancers don’t have the same formal structures; it’s a bit more free-wheeling.” Recent industry initiatives to
address this issue have included the Production Safety Passport, a joint industry scheme involving broad- casters, Pact, Skillset and others. Four
Health and safety on set is a growing concern. Ann-Marie Corvin reports on a series of recent accidents and how production managers ensure best practice on busy productions
years in the making, the scheme has set an agreed industry standard and framework for safety training, which means the training that staff or free- lancers undertake for one employer is recognised by the next. Approved courses are eligible for a training bursary, which can represent up to 80% of the cost.
Taking responsibility For freelancers, therefore, the onus on improving safety awareness is ultimately down to the individual. And the more senior the role, the more health and safety and legal train- ing is required. As Donall McCusker, chairman of
the Production Managers Association and a freelance production manager, points out: “If you are taken on as a production manager, you are respon- sible for your own health and safety and that of those around you. You take on those responsibilities – potential injuries or action by the HSE – in the same way that you
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