The new PPE Regulation is here: Are you compliant?

While the implementation of the old directive helped to revolutionise workplace safety, improving accident rates and helping develop a healthy European PPE market, it had been under scrutiny over a number of years, due to products being identified as non-compliant and hazardous, putting workers’ lives at risk. 

The new PPE Regulation puts the onus on the whole supply chain to ensure the compliance of products. All those involved in the manufacture, supply and distribution of PPE are now referred to as ‘Economic Operators’ and are legally responsible for ensuring products comply with standards of safety. 

Neil Hewitt, director of quality & technical standards at PPE supplier Arco, told HSM that the new PPE Regulation should be welcomed "as it results in the quality of PPE supplied to workers becoming a universal responsibility".  

He added: "PPE and wearing appropriate equipment that meet the safety standards should not just be the duty of one person, or one section of the supply chain – everyone prepared to intervene in the supply chain for profit should be accountable, ensuring fatal and non-fatal injury is reduced."

Nevertheless, identifying true product compliance can be difficult for the purchaser and end user, and so it is important that the details of the new regulation are fully understood. 

HSM is hosting a free webinar in conjunction with the British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) called "Complying with the law – PPE Regulation EU 2016/425 update'. The webinar will take place on Monday 2nd July at 10:30am. To register and for more details, please visit: http://events.streamgo.co.uk/Complying-with-the-law

In the meantime, we're interested to hear what you, our readers, understand about the new PPE Regulation, and have put together a survey that asks for your views and opinions.

The questions will also cover PPE procurement, supply and innovation. The results will be published in our annual PPE Insight Guide in the summer and we hope they will help to influence and shape the future of this vital sector.

To take the online survey, please visit https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/95PFS3C by 22nd May. It will only take you a few minutes to complete and you can do so anonymously. But we'd encourage you to submit your contact details at the end of the survey so we can enter you into our free prize draw for £100 of Amazon vouchers. 

We've had an excellent response so far and so a big thanks to you all for your valuable time and input.