A few days before the school year was due to start back in September, over 100 schools in England were told to close due to serious health and safety concerns regarding reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in buildings.
The material is less durable than concrete but had been used in local authority buildings across the country largely due to it being more cost-effective and easier to install.
At First Minster’s Questions on 7 September 2023, Humza Yousaf advised that the number of schools known to contain Reinforced Autoclave Aerated Concrete (RAAC) has increased to at least 40. This follows on from announcements in England that more than 100 schools have either fully or partially closed. Furthermore, nine Scottish universities have recently confirmed that they too have closed or partially closed some buildings.
Uncertainty continues to surround Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (as established under the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Regulations 2020).
Agricultural and rural settings present significant health and safety risks, which must be carefully managed and mitigated by employers and landowners operating in the sector. This is often brought into sharp focus when the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) releases its annual work-related statistics.
Considerable uncertainty surrounds Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). The DRS, having originally been set to be implemented in July 2022, August 2023 and then March 2024, is now (7 June 2023) delayed until October 2025 ‘at the earliest’. While subject to change, once introduced the DRS will introduce a 20p deposit payable by consumers on all eligible containers, repaid at the point of return.
The climate change crisis is transforming not just government, but business and consumer attitudes and behaviours. While sustainability goals for organisations have clear tangible benefits, for example, in reducing carbon, it is less clear whether consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable/ethical/green products and services.
It is clear that hydrogen as an energy source will be key to meeting UK, European and global climate goals in the next 30 years. To ensure that hydrogen can reach its potential as a sustainable fuel of the future, it must also be safe, and laws and regulations can help to ensure this. This article looks at a number of the legislative and regulatory consequences there may be.
2023 will see a raft of UK legal and regulatory reform which will impact a range of organisations. In this article, Scott Rodger and Natasha Durkin from our Regulation and Markets team take a look at what is set to be a busy year of legal change ahead for competition and regulatory compliance.
Agricultural and rural settings present significant health and safety risks, which must be carefully managed and mitigated by employers and landowners operating in the sector. The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) annual report into workplace fatal injuries (published on 6 July 2022) disclosed that, of the 123 workers killed in work-related accidents across the United Kingdom in 2021/22, 22 deaths occurred in the agriculture sector.