Health, safety and risk

All new students at the University of Manchester are required to complete this course, which is delivered online by the University’s Health and Safety Services. The course delivers basic information about how health and safety is managed at the University and includes some simple tests to assess learning outcomes.

The course codes are as follows:

• LAWS11230 Law and Criminology UG students
• LAWS61230 Law and Criminology PGT students
• CSEP60123 CSEP students

You will automatically be enrolled on this course unit which is delivered through Blackboard and which can be accessed via My Manchester.  It will take you approximately one hour to complete.

You are expected to complete the course and obtain a "pass" by 1 November. If you do not complete the course unit you may be prevented from accessing parts of the campus.

• School of Law Health and Safety Policy
• University Health and Safety Policy

Accident report form

The accident report form should be completed by the casualty or a nominated person on their behalf, to report any accident involving personal injury. The form must also be countersigned by a 'responsible person' and sent to:

Health and Safety Services
Waterloo Place
180 Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9GP

Incident / near miss report form

To ensure that serious accidents do not occur, the University has produced an incident/near miss report form.

This form is to be used by anyone to report incidents which do not involve personal injury. Please forward completed forms to the School Safety Officer at risk.law@manchester.ac.uk.

The following University documents may be important to staff and students who use computers, or other equipment with a display screen:

• Guidance on the use of Display Screen Equipment
• Display Screen Equipment - Guide to setting up your workstation

You should familiarise yourself with the main escape route from the building and with alternative routes should the main escape route be impassable. If you hear the alarm (continuous siren) leave the building as quickly as possible by the nearest available exit and assemble on the grass between the building and Oxford Road. Do not use the lifts. 

Note that the Fire Alarm is tested every Monday at 8.20am and you do not have to evacuate the building for this test. Do not enter a building while the alarm is sounding, and following evacuation, do not re-enter until a senior Fire Officer or senior member of staff gives permission. If you discover a fire, do not delay in sounding the alarm.

Fire alarms are located on each corridor and are operated by breaking the glass in the red contact boxes which are usually located at the end and mid points of the main corridors.

Students with a disability

The Disability Support Office (DSO) will identify students that need to have Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) and this will be prepared by the School. The Law School has Disability Co-ordinators who monitor and advise on disability issues and work with the DSO. 

In the event of an accident requiring first aid, you should either contact a member of staff or consult the porter at the main entrance to the building where the first aid box is available. A list of the names of authorised first aiders can be found by the lifts in every University building,

The School first aiders are:

• Ceri Wilson (Williamson 3.05) - Ext: 66543
• Sarah Tiffany-Dodman (Williamson 3.51a) - Ext: 53591

Please note: All security staff are first aid and defibrillator trained.

Security can be contacted by calling: +44 (0)161 306 9966 (this number can be found on the back of your ID card).

If you are in the Williamson Building before 8.30am or after 5.30pm, you are asked to phone University Security on extension 69966.

You are also advised to add the full University security telephone number to your mobile phone, for summoning assistance quickly in case of emergency. The telephone number is +44 (0)161 306 9966.

There is annual testing of all portable electrical appliances in teaching rooms and staff offices, in order to check that they conform to electrical safety standards.

The University promotes the use of sensible health and safety risk management for all its activities, through informed assessment and proportionate risk controls.

The principles of sensible risk management are:

• ensuring that employees, students and the public are properly protected
• ensuring compliance with legal requirements
• providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks – both those which give rise to less severe injury but occur more frequently, and those that are less likely to occur but if they do happen, could result in very serious consequences
• enabling and supporting innovation and learning not stifling them
• ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly
• enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility

Risk management is not about creating a totally risk free society, or generating paperwork for the sake of it. It should not be used to exaggerate trivial risks, or stop learning activities where the risks are managed.

The School has a number of generic risk assessment documents as listed below:

• School of Law generic A: normal office work on campus
• School of Law generic B: off-campus work in UK
• School of Law generic C: low risk overseas destinations
• Full risk assessment pro-forma

If your project/ activity does not fall within these generic risk assessments you will have to complete a full risk assessment form, outlining the specific risks you anticipate and the measures you plan to take to address them. Submit this risk assessment with your UREC form.

If one of the generic templates fits your project/ activity in most, but not all, respects, you can use the full risk assessment form to state which generic assessment mainly applies and to then specify the risks associated with your project that fall outside the generic assessment, and the measures you plan to take to address them.

Staff attending conferences/ meetings away from campus

The Head of School also needs to ensure that staff attending conferences or meetings away from the University campus are covered by the University’s Liability Insurance in the unlikely event of an accident.

To ensure that we are compliant, academics are asked to email risk.law@manchester.ac.uk with details of any trips they are undertaking, country/place they are going to, travel arrangements, duration of the trip etc. An email will then be sent to you to advice whether the trip falls under one of the generic assessments. If it does not then you will be assisted in completing a full risk assessment.

The University has a 'No Smoking' policy. Smoking is not allowed in the School or in shared public areas of the building, such as lecture theatres, laboratories, common rooms, foyers, corridors, lifts, stairs or within five meters of a building entrance.

You should not bring food or drink into lecture theatres, seminar rooms or the computer clusters.