Day 131 - 06 Jun 95 - Page 22

     
     1   Q.   What benefit does that confer, from a general point of
     2        health and safety?
     3        A.  Well, you see, the law just requires that accident to
     4        be notified to the local authority.  This is requiring that
     5        you not only notify, but you must investigate that to find
     6        out what the causes of the accident are, because obviously
     7        one wishes to learn from that sort of information to
     8        prevent the accident recurring in the future, or similar
     9        ones.  So that is the essence of good accident
    10        investigation:  to be able to prevent recurrence.
    11
    12   Q.   Next, Mr. Purslow, 57U -- which is, I think, the last
    13        document in the file -- which is a McDonald's restaurant
    14        safety audit.  I hope it is.  Is it?
    15        A.  Yes, it is.
    16
    17   Q.   Have you seen this document as well?
    18        A.  Yes, I have.
    19
    20   Q.   Has this anything to do with the ROSPA audit of which we
         have heard?
    22        A.  Not as such, although it is compatible with the sort of
    23        things the ROSPA audit will be looking for.  In other
    24        words, it is a scored health and safety audit which is
    25        conducted internally.
    26
    27   Q.   Do other companies of a similar kind to McDonald's operate
    28        audits of this kind?
    29        A.  Few of them do it in this amount of detail.  Most
    30        companies would reckon to have some sort of internal
    31        inspection system.  It is rather less common to find it in
    32        this scored format which does carry certain benefits with
    33        it.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is that form, is it?
    36
    37   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, yes, dated October -----
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is 57U?
    40
    THE WITNESS:  It is in my copy, my Lord.
    42
    43   MR. RAMPTON:  (To the witness)  This is more detailed than one
    44        would normally expect to find, is it?
    45        A.  Yes, it is.
    46
    47   Q.   Again, no point in having a piece of paper, Mr. Purslow,
    48        unless it is of some use.  What benefit does this confer,
    49        in a general sense, on health and safety interests?
    50        A.  First of all, it directs attention on specific aspects 
    51        of the operation.  So it is detailed to that extent; and it 
    52        includes not just the normal routine operations, in other 
    53        words, the cooking of burgers or whatever; it includes a
    54        great deal in terms of what I would think of as one-off or
    55        non-standard operations.  To that extent, it is very good,
    56        because it directs attention across the field of health and
    57        safety.
    58
    59        Also, by scoring, what it effectively does is attempting to
    60        measure the preventative effort, if you like, and a