Day 131 - 06 Jun 95 - Page 59

     
     1
     2   Q.   The Health and Safety Executive Accident Prevention Unit,
     3        Advisory Unit ---
     4        A.  Yes.
     5
     6   Q.   -- published in 1992 on McDonald's, do you basically accept
     7        or agree with that overview of McDonald's safety situation
     8        at that time?
     9        A.  I thought it was a very well-balanced report, by and
    10        large.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Unless you put it to a witness, I will assume
    13        that that is the position which you and Ms. Steel adopt as
    14        well, because Mrs. Barnes gave an answer to much the same
    15        effect of her view of it, and now we have heard Mr. Purslow
    16        say that.  So, unless there is any challenge to the
    17        validity of its assessment by you or Mr. McDonald (if you
    18        call him), I will assume that that much is common ground.
    19        It may be of some significance because, if one looks at the
    20        time when they visited, Mrs. Barnes' systems were hardly up
         and going.
    22
    23   THE WITNESS:  Still talking about them at the time, yes,
    24        indeed.  That was taken as the opportunity to move forward,
    25        certainly.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Was it September 1990 to April 1991, or
    28        August 1990 to April 1990?
    29
    30   MR. MORRIS:  It was agreed by McDonald's management -----
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  In one of the first two pages -- I have
    33        made a note of it, but I have not got my note with me -- it
    34        says when the inspections and interviews took place.
    35
    36   MR. MORRIS:  December 1991 to April 1992.
    37
    38        (To the witness)  Mrs. Barnes had been in her position for
    39        18 months, something like that, by that time?
    40        A.  Something like that, yes.
    41
    42   Q.   And you had then started to be consulted?
    43        A.  Yes.
    44
    45   Q.   For some substantial amount of time?
    46        A.  Yes.
    47
    48   Q.   So had improvements been made in that period between
    49        July 1990 and December 1991?
    50        A.  Yes.  Certainly, some improvement had been made, 
    51        because things like COSHH assessment had been agreed.  We 
    52        had already begun to look at a policy of procedures 
    53        documentation and so on.  But it takes time for the systems
    54        to come into effect, certainly.
    55
    56   Q.   Can you think of any other improvements which have been
    57        made in that period between July 1990 and December 1991?
    58        A.  It would be difficult to be specific, without me going
    59        back over the work that was done.  Certainly, what tends to
    60        happen is that you begin to build up, if you like,