Friday 21 September 2007 07:00
Health and Safety Executive (North West)

HSE inspections highlight dangerous North West construction sites

A Health and Safety Executive inspection programme revealed that workers' lives were being put at risk at nearly one in three of over 1,500 construction refurbishment sites inspected nationwide.

In the North West 154 sites were visited with 38 Prohibition Notices being served to stop work immediately until corrective action was taken. Nineteen of the sites were in Cheshire and Merseyside, ten in Greater Manchester with the remaining nine in Lancashire and Cumbria (see table below)

The startling figures come after HSE North West Construction Inspector Nic Rigby managed the two-month programme of inspections that resulted in enforcement action on 426 occasions throughout the country.

Nic says: "New build operations have tightened up their act but there is still a lot of improvement required in refurbishment work. We can't see such work as readily, as it often takes place behind the walls of pre-existing buildings, but we are determined that the safety standards should match."

Stephen Williams, HSE's Head of Construction, said:
"Our inspectors were appalled at the apparent willingness to ignore basic safety precautions. It is completely unacceptable that so many lives have been put at risk.

"The simple fact is that despite knowing what they should be doing, too many people are prepared to allow bad practices to continue, even though last year 39 people died on refurbishment, repair and maintenance sites.

"We are determined to tackle this issue head on and will continue to take enforcement action against those rogues who flout safety precautions. Let me be clear to all those who put lives at risk - we will continue to carry out further inspections and will take all action necessary to protect workers, including closing sites and prosecution."

Work at height remains the biggest concern. Over half of the enforcement action taken during this inspection initiative was against dangerous work at height, which last year led to the death of 23 workers.

Stephen Williams continued:
"My advice to those who work in the refurbishment sector is to plan work, use competent workers and if working at height use the right equipment and use it safely."

The majority of Prohibition Notices issued during the campaign related to Working at Height, where unsafe procedures pose an obvious danger to workers' health and safety.

Good Order Prohibition notices are designed to prevent slips and trips by requiring good housekeeping and tidy sites to reduce the risk of the circumstances that cause them.

Good order notices can even save money as site operators are forced to tidy up and get their sites and resources organised.

Area         No. of    No of WAH WAH  Good  Good   Other Possible
              Sites     Con- PNs Ins Order Order notices   prose-
            visited tractors           PNs   Ins          cutions
                        seen
Lancashire&      89      116   9   1     0     0       4        2
Cumbria
Greater          36       43   8   1     2     1       6        0
Manchester
Cheshire         29       37  15   4     4     1      28        0
and
Merseyside
North West      154      196  32   6     6     2      38        2

WAH (Work At Height)

PN = Prohibition Notice, requiring an immediate cessation to work until a health and safety problem has been rectified;
IN = Improvement Notice, requiring an improvement to a health and safety problem within a specified time.

More guidance and advice is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/index.htm

Notes to Editors:
1. HSE inspected 1586 contractors on construction refurbishment sites throughout June and July. This inspection initiative follows on from the Fit Out Campaign in 2005 and the Watch Your Step initiative in 2006.

2. Reducing the number of injuries and deaths from trips and falls is a priority for HSE to help the construction industry meet its accident target by 2010. The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) published its Strategy for workplace health and safety in Great Britain to 2010 and beyond on 23 February 2004. The strategy aims to promote a vision of health and safety as a cornerstone of a civilised society and to achieve a record of workplace health and safety that leads the world. The strategy is available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/hsc/strategy.htm

3. Rt Hon Peter Hain MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced on 25 July 2007 that he would be holding a Forum to look at the number of fatalities in the house building and domestic repair/refurbishment sector of the construction industry.

4. HSE published the latest annual work related fatal injury statistics on 26 July 2007 which can be viewed at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/fatals.htm

Issued on behalf of HSE by Government News Network North West.