PR1 – ACR announces appointment of new chairman
ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR ROOFWORK (ACR)
The Advisory Committee for Roofwork (ACR), which deals with numerous roof safety issues on behalf of the roofing industry, has taken a major step forward in autonomy.
Formed in 1998 the ACR is a joint Industry/HSE initiative, allying the Health & Safety Executive with the Technical Management of leading roofing trade associations (currently seven) and is dedicated to making working on roofs safer. The ACR was initially chaired by the HSE but now is chaired by Industry to ensure that every member of the working group has the opportunity to express themselves without feeling any inhibitions.
The current Chairman is Chris Pearce, a member of the National Association of Rooflight Manufacturers. Commenting on his appointment, Chris said:
“I am proud to be involved with ACR. I have been involved from its conception when the initial concern was to provide industry with a means to determine what was a non-fragile assembly and thereby develop products and systems that would make roofs a safer place to work both at the time of construction and during the maintenance phase. Without exceptions, the Group are totally focussed on creating a safer working environment for the roofing industry.”
In 2000 the ACR published the definitive Materials Standard “ACR[M]001:2000 – Test for Fragility of Roofing Assemblies”, this document lays down clear guidelines for manufacturing, and correctly utilising, a precisely-defined test rig designed to provide a clear classification of many types of roof assembly into Fragile or Non-fragile groups. As one of its next activities, the Committee intends to push forward with the Third Edition of this document, which is being finalised ready for publication shortly.
ACR[CP]001:2003, “Recommended Practice for Work on Profiled Sheeted Roofs” was also released recently. This will form the backbone of safety recommendations in the profiled roofing field. It includes guidelines and memory-joggers for architects and specifiers, regarding their responsibilities under the CDM Regulations (1994), to ensure that roof safety is designed into a project from the outset. Specifically, Annex C at the rear of the publication, provides designers, specifiers and Inspectors with an Aide Memoir to go through with the roofing contractor, to ensure that the full roofing specification has been complied with in all detail to ensure that the complete roof assembly is non-fragile.
In order to maintain the effectiveness of the test for fragility, and other advisory references produced by this committee, a formal complaints and investigations procedure has also been set up.
In more recent months, the Group have been looking at the Draft for the new Working at Height Regulations and from their wealth of knowledge and experience, have provided the HSE with a number of suggested amendments and recommendations which we believe will make the new Regs more workable and safer.
Chris Pearce
Chairman of ACR, Consultant to Filon Products Ltd