CITB Levy
- 2019 Levy Assessment delayed to September 2020 and payment spread across 12 months.
- Levy rates for the 2020 Levy Assessment will be cut by 50% for one year only.
CITB has been exploring with government ways to cut the levy bill, recognising the cash-flow challenges that industry faces. By law, we must collect the Levy, but we’ve developed a solution that will reduce payments for all Levy payers and offer an extended ‘payment holiday’.
We asked for no 2019 Levy payments until September 2020 and then offered employers a choice to pay up-front or over a 12-month period to August 2021.
In addition, 2020 Levy assessment will be delayed until August 2021 and cut by 50%. This assessment can also be paid in one go, or spread over up to 6 months, from September 2021 – February 2022.
This means an overall Levy cut of 25% across two years.
Levy collection will then return to the normal structure from May 2022.
On 25 June 2020, CITB published its Skills Stability Plan 2020-21 (PDF, 164KB) to help employers recover from the impact of Coronavirus, including a substantial reduction in Levy bills.
PASMA Standards – EN 1004 2020
On the 17th June 2020, the 2004 version will became obsolete, which means it has been superseded by a more up-to-date standard but has not yet been withdrawn. The result of the vote means the 2004 version will continue to exist alongside the 2020 version until 17 May 2021, when it will be withdrawn.
The months leading up to the withdrawal date are effectively a transition period during which designers, manufacturers and suppliers will switch to providing mobile access towers which comply with, and are certified to, the new standard, EN 1004:2020.
What’s changing? The new standard includes numerous technical and editorial adjustments, such as clarification that EN 1004 only applies to mobile towers on wheels, not towers on baseplates (which are covered in BS 1139-6). There’s also a significant change affecting low-level access. Low-level towers with the working platform below 2.5m will fall within the scope of EN 1004 for the first time, as it’s set to cover towers from the ground up (rather than from 2.5m as it is today). For towers with the working platform below 2m, it will be possible for manufacturers to develop products that allow easier means of access.
IPAF – New Membership Category
The International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) has launched a new type of membership, the Safety Professional member category, aimed at those in health & safety or related supervisory roles within powered access or wider end-use sectors.
The new membership category is aimed at individuals within larger organisations, including those employed by existing IPAF Member companies, and is a cost-effective way to benefit from the Federation and its activities, bringing benefits and increasing opportunities to receive direct updates from IPAF about safety and technical guidance, join exclusive webinars and events, and to engage directly with IPAF experts and fellow members.
The benefits of the new member package include free participation in exclusive safety professional events with leading speakers from the powered access industry, access to a private LinkedIn group to share knowledge and safety good practice, access to the members’ area of the IPAF website and the IPAF accident reporting portal members’ dashboard, plus a discounted subscription to a leading UK H&S publication.
Brian Parker, IPAF’s Head of Safety & Technical, says: “This new category of membership is aimed at health & safety managers, supervisors or officers, indeed for anyone engaged in a safety role concerning the use of powered access and general issues concerning work at height safety.
“In my previous role at a large IPAF member hire and training company, I was tasked with managing and leading on health & safety strategy and protocols, and this category of individual membership would certainly have appealed to me and been a great help in my day-to-day work, not least in conveying safety messages to colleagues and the reporting and analysis of industry accident data.”
Peter Douglas, CEO & MD of IPAF, adds: “This is something quite a few people have mentioned to me since I took up post in 2019, with many industry contacts saying they would like us to create a special individual membership category tailored to health & safety professionals within larger companies or perhaps suitable for those working on a consultancy basis within powered access or work at height safety.
“I’m very pleased we are now able to make the new category of membership available, and I look forward to speaking to interested parties about the opportunities and benefits it offers, beginning at Vertikal Days in Peterborough, UK.
“We believe that the new category is a great way for such individuals to keep up to date with the latest industry developments, safety information and guidance in the world of powered access, and to engage directly with IPAF and its members, whether that be receiving industry news, sharing advice on safety practice, assisting with the IPAF global accident reporting project or serving on an IPAF committee or working group.”
