Around 1,000 initial health and safety inspections are undertaken on farms each year by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI).

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, HSENI agri-food principal inspector Malcolm Downey said that although most of the inspections are unannounced, inspectors are there initially in an advisory role.

“We are trying to encourage and explain to farmers the reasons why something may be a concern for health and safety,” he said.

There are a team of five farm inspectors in NI who have enforcement powers if something is a high risk to safety, along with two business advisers without enforcement powers.

“We select an area to focus on for a period of time. If there has been a run of accidents in the area or if there has been a specific problem with a type of accident, then we may focus on that in the inspections,” Downey said.

In general, HSENI inspectors look at four broad themes on farms – slurry, animals, falls and equipment (which forms the acronym SAFE).

The slurry theme involves talking through the safe mixing procedure and looking at slurry equipment and storage on the farm.

Handling facilities and management of bulls, as well as cows and heifers, is covered in the second theme of animals.

Repair work needed in sheds, particularly roofs and sky lights, and how to safely work at heights, is looked at in the falls theme.

For equipment, inspectors look at tractors and machinery. “It is usually not the main tractor but the one used less frequently, maybe for scraping, where there could be an issue with brakes or an unguarded PTO shaft,” Downey said.

If something on a farm needs to be addressed following an inspection, an improvement notice is issued. This gives a farmer time to rectify the issue. For minor improvements, the farmer emails a photo to the HSENI once the work is complete, with no re-inspection required.

For high-risk issues, such as a slurry tanker with an unguarded PTO, a prohibition notice can be put in place by HSENI inspectors, meaning the equipment cannot be used until it is fixed.

The notice is then lifted once the issue is addressed – a re-inspection is likely, but the farmer does not have to wait until it occurs.

At a farm safety workshop in Swatragh last week, Pat McNamee from CAFRE said that improving safety is about reducing the number of injuries as well as farm fatalities. “It is estimated that for every one fatal accident on a farm there are 200 serious injuries and 2,000 dangerous occurrences, probably better known as ‘near shaves’,” he told farmers.