Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Construction
Welcome to the latest edition of Construction Infonet.
Construction Infonet is a free e-Bulletin from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to provide a regular update on health and safety issues for all in the construction industry.
The new HSE strategy has been finalised following a three-month consultation programme.
During the consultation, we spoke to many interested parties and individuals, including: business leaders; industry representatives; trades unions; parliamentarians; employees; and others in the health and safety system. We wanted to hear ideas on how we could all become 'part of the solution'.
HSE has recently encountered instances during the refurbishment of social housing properties where inadequate measures had been taken to prevent unsafe work associated with asbestos containing materials (ACMs). Workers, and in some cases tenants, may have been exposed to asbestos because of this failure to manage the risk
HSE has written an 'Advisory note on the refurbishment of housing stock likely to contain asbestos' which provides guidance to social landlords including local authorities, housing associations and social housing management companies and which sets out how to manage the risks of exposure of workers to asbestos to comply with current legislation.
Read details of some recent HSE prosecutions and enforcement action in the construction sector and find sources of relevant advice.
Work at Height remains the single biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the main causes of major injury.
3 June 2009 - HSE is urging construction companies to prevent falls from height after a carpenter fell over five metres while attempting to secure concrete shutters. The incident occurred during the construction of a new school in Waltham Forest in October 2007.
Bouygues (UK) Limited, based in London was fined £ 18,000 with costs of £ 2,796 after pleading guilty to Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The organisation was also ordered to pay the worker £5,000 compensation.
5 June 2009 - HSE is urging employers to ensure proper safety procedures are in place to prevent workers falling from height.
The call follows the prosecution of Heathrow Airport Ltd at City of London Magistrates Court after a contractor fell into a 2.2 metre deep gully whilst working from height on the roof of Terminal 1 at Heathrow Airport.
Heathrow Airport Ltd, based in London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The court fined the company £10,000 and ordered them to pay costs of £3,130.
8 June 2009 - A Scottish construction company and one of its directors have been convicted of failing to ensure proper health and safety standards after the death of an employee.
Andrezej Freitag, a 53-year-old from Poland, fell nearly three metres down an exhaust shaft at a block of flats being built on Arbroath Road, Dundee. The incident happened because there was not a robust barrier on the edge of the shaft. Mr Freitag later died from his injuries.
At Dundee Sheriff Court, Discovery Homes (Scotland) Limited of Kinross, was fined £5,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Mr Richard Lionel John Pratt, a Director of the same company, who also performed the duties of site manager, was fined £4,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. This is only the second successful prosecution of a company director in Scotland in six years for a breach of health and safety legislation.
2 June 2009 - HSE is warning employers to ensure the effective management of the safe movement of pedestrians and vehicles around the workplace, after a man was reversed over by a forklift truck at the new £22.5m shopping complex at Willow Place, Corby.
The advice comes after BAM Construction Limited (formerly HBG Construction Limited) was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay £13,540.90 costs. The company pleaded guilty to Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work act 1974. The charges relate to the failure to effectively plan, organise, control, monitor and review traffic on site. This includes a failure to maintain and manage traffic routes.
8 June 2009 - HSE is urging employers to ensure proper safety procedures are in place to make certain staff are kept safe when working on construction sites.
The call follows the prosecution of Bouygues (UK) Ltd after an employee was struck by a reversing vehicle as he crossed a one-way vehicular traffic route within a construction site. The worker died at the scene.
Bouygues (UK) Ltd, based in East London, pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2 (1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The court fined the company £160,000 and ordered them to pay costs of £21,698.20 and victim surcharge of £15.
29 April 2009 - HSE is reminding construction companies and operators of excavators of the need to ensure the safety pin is correctly fitted in semi automatic quick hitches.
The reminder follows a serious accident on 29 November 2007 at the Sandyholm Garden Centre, Crossford, South Lanarkshire in which an architect suffered fatal injuries after being struck by the digging bucket which had detached from the semi automatic quick hitch of an excavator. The digging bucket was able to detach and fall because the safety pin, a vital safety feature on semi automatic quick hitches, which holds the bucket in place, had not been fitted.
Shaun McDowall of Lea Park, Carclui Road by Ayr, the self-employed operator of the excavator, was fined £3500 on Tuesday (28 April) at Lanark Sheriff Court after he pled guilty to a charge under Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Safe use of quick hitch devices on excavators - HSE Sector Information
The Working Well Together campaign runs 30- 40 events across England, Scotland and Wales every year. Most of the events are free to attend and we usually feed you too!
Visit the WWT website to see what's happening in your area.
Authoritative guidance about how to protect employees from workplace dangers is to be given away free by HSE.
From September 2009 around 250 priced publications that contain health and safety advice and guidance will be made freely available from HSE's website in PDF format to view and print.
Call 0845 345 0055 or visit the contact HSE website.
Call 0845 300 9923 or RIDDOR website.
We issue e-Bulletins on a regular basis and would welcome your feedback and views as well as any suggestions/contributions for future articles.
Thank you to those who have provided feedback on the previous editions - we have tried to incorporate as many of the suggestions as possible.
You can contact us at: construction-manager@bulletins.hse.gov.uk