As part of an amnesty agreed last week, all sites have been asked to check again that they don’t have any spare or master keys for isolation padlocks or trap key systems.

During these checks one site identified they had duplicate interlock keys for their captive key systems.  It is really pleasing that the site team felt comfortable coming forward with this information and our thanks go to them.  However, this does call into question whether we are reacting to relevant Safety Alerts as the potential for this issue was raised in the attached Safety Alert at the beginning of May. (This is now on the downloads section of the UK News website – Captive Key Interlocks).

While it is a requirement for Global Safety Alerts to be rolled out across all sites, teams have discretion to identify which UK Alerts they cascade.  Teams should identify those that are relevant, ensuring they are effectively cascaded and reviewed to ensure any gaps in control measures are identified and addressed.  It is not intended that all UK Safety Alerts are rolled out on every site simply to “tick the box”, but those that are relevant must be acted upon.