Farm Safety Series: Safeguarding children and the public on-farm

Farms are not parks or playgrounds and must be treated with caution like any other workplace, industry chiefs have warned. It comes after a rise in the number of people killed on GB farms, with seven members of the public, including two children, losing their lives in 2020/21 compared to one member of the public, a child, in 2019/2020, new data from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has revealed.An increase in footfall to the countryside as people rediscovered nature's benefit for physical and mental wellbeing, as well as more children in rural locations due to Covid-19 school closures, may have exacerbated the issue. But the last five years have seen 23 members of the public and eight children killed on GB farms, ringing alarm bells in the industry.Stephanie Berkeley, Farm Safety Foundation manager, said: "While most people who visit the countryside are keen to act responsibly, serious farm-related incidents can be due to a lack of understanding of what the farmland is being used for and what your responsibilities are when visiting."Public safety should be a part of your overall health and safety policy. "If you carry out a risk assessment, you can minimise the risks to those working on, visiting, walking or riding on your land."If you have people passing through your land, you must minimise any risk of injury to them." HSE principal inspector Wayne Owen also stressed that farmers have a legal duty to control risks to members of the public created by their farming activity."Failure to do this may result in enforcement action by HSE, but more importantly, it can result in death and serious injury to members of the public," he said."Farmers should plan activities and consider risk in advance."They should then take reasonable steps to manage the risk." Beware of the risks cattle pose to people Farmers have been urged to do ‘what is reasonable' to control risk to members of the public from livestock in fields with public access.It comes after four walkers were killed by cattle in 2020/21 and just recently, a member of the public, who was walking his dog, was found dead in a field containing cows and calves on August 10, near Gloucestershire.Health and Safety Executive principal inspector, Wayne Owen, said: "Plan field use so that wherever possible you keep cattle (especially cows with calves) out of fields which have public access."Where this is not possible, consider ways of segregating the cattle from people using the field - erecting permanent or temporary fencing is one example." Mr Owen urged all farmers keeping cattle in fields to read the guidance by visiting hse.gov.uk/pubns/ais17ew.pdf

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Farm Safety Series: Safeguarding children and the public on-farm

Farms are not parks or playgrounds and must be treated with caution like any other workplace, industry chiefs have warned.

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Farm Safety Series: Safeguarding children and the public on-farm

Farms are not parks or playgrounds and must be treated with caution like any other workplace, industry chiefs have warned.

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