Small sites failing to meet safety standards

The Chief Executives Report to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Board meeting on the 7 December 2016, has highlighted the ongoing dangers for construction workers.

The HSE conducted 1840 visits to small refurbishment sites in June/July and October/November this year. HSE inspectors found that 49% of sites did not meet safety standards. They issued 741 enforcement notices and 1059 notices of contravention. Inspectors had to deal immediately with a number of dangers especially the failure to work safely at height and also the failure to deal safely with asbestos and silica dust.

Brian Rye, Acting General Secretary of construction union UCATT, said, “This shows that safety standards on small construction sites remain a basket case. Safety laws are being ignored and workers placed in daily danger. It is frankly more by luck than judgement that more workers are not being killed at work. It also shows that the HSE needs greater resources to conduct these initiatives 12 months of a year as they are only able to visit a tiny amount of sites.”