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The Health and Safety Executive sent inspectors to visit more than three thousand construction sites as part of a national initiative to improve safety in the construction industry.

While the results of these inspections show a slight improvement in the standards of safety on construction sites, one in five of the sites visited failed their safety inspection. In just over six hundred cases, inspectors were obliged to stop work immediately.

The Chief Inspector of Construction, Philip White, said:

“It is encouraging that inspectors found a slight improvement in standards and small construction firms are taking safety seriously when carrying out refurbishment work.
“But this is just a snapshot, and the number of notices served for unsafe work at height is still unacceptable, particularly when the safety measures are well-known and straightforward to implement.
“Too many contractors continue to put their own or other people’s lives at risk and we will not hesitate to take action where standards are not met.”

Adequate health and safety training plays an essential role in the reduction of risk to life and limb on construction sites. Employees must be aware of the risks involved and of how to minimise them if the number of accidents is to decrease.