Construction

Two companies and two people have been sentenced after a teenage construction worker was fatally injured while working on a house-build construction site in Lincolnshire.

A civil engineering firm has been fined £600K for safety breaches after a missing seven-year-old child was found dead by workers on a construction site.

The GB Health and Safety Executive has recently published a revised version of its fire safety in construction (HSG168) document. 

A series of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests made by the trade union Unite (https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2022/august/frightening-drop-in-construction-safety-inspections-exposed/) has highlighted a significant decline in the number of ‘proactive’ inspections that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has made in the construction sector since 2013/14.

Lorry loaders fitted with hydraulic tilting and deployment stabiliser legs are to be banned from all Skanska UK sites.

As we approach the anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, we look at progress in tackling widespread safety failings, and at the wider lessons for OSH professionals.

The Building Safety Bill received Royal Assent last Thursday (28 April) although many of its provisions will only come into force in a year to 18 months’ time to provide industry with sufficient time to prepare.

Advice from a competent person would probably have stopped a wall collapsing onto an eight-year-old child, which led to her having her big toe amputated, said the inspector from GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE) who investigated the case.

On 18 July 2017, a section of the rear wall of Citadel Church in Cardiff fell on scaffolder Jeff Plevey, instantly killing him. We spoke with the HSE’s lead investigator on this case to find out how such a tragic incident came about.

Wayne Bagnall, a leading authority in the field of demolition and asbestos safety, discusses the value of lifelong learning, meeting the Queen, and the importance of trust and optimism.