Welcome to the latest edition of Construction Infonet.
Construction Infonet is a free eBulletin from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to provide a regular update on health and safety issues for all in the construction industry.
Are you a small builder? HSE Construction Division has prepared some PowerPoint presentations to help you run a successful construction site. These presentations are companions to the already popular Busy Builder leaflets. They can be changed to meet your business needs - but please acknowledge HSE as the source.
Frontline has been commissioned by HSE to evaluate the impact of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 on the construction industry in Great Britain.
As part of this evaluation, Frontline is hosting a number of open forums and workshops across the country to get abroad range of views from people working in the industry. Please register online if you would like to be involved
The following guidance/information for designers has been added to the HSE construction webpages
Read details of some recent HSE prosecutions and enforcement action in the construction sector and find sources of relevant advice.
29 July 2010 - An architect's practice and a construction company involved in a Somerset development have been fined a total of £195,000 following a fatality on the site when a worker fell 9 metres.
Express Park Construction Company Limited (EPCC), of London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 for failing to safely manage subcontractors working for it. They were fined £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £68,000.
The architects involved, Oxford Architects Partnership, of Oxford, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 13, and 14, of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994, which require designers to take safety considerations into account. They were fined £120,000 and ordered to pay costs of £60,000
August 2010 - A Staffordshire company has been fined £8,000 after one of its workers fell more than two metres from a scaffold tower, fracturing one vertebra, crushing another and leaving him immobilised for more than six weeks.
The worker was carrying out routine maintenance on a machine used to make exhaust pipes when he fell. An investigation by HSE revealed there had never been a guardrail on one edge of the scaffold as it was felt it would interfere with access to the machines.
Klarius UK Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. As well as being fined, it was also ordered to pay £1,892 costs.
August 2010 - Two UK construction companies have been fined a total of £125,000 after a worker was seriously injured when he fell from a hospital building under construction in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Steven McColgan, 37, from Edinburgh, was working on the construction of the adult block of the Royal Victoria Infirmary when an unsupported working platform broke away when he stood on it, causing him to fall 21 metres to the ground. He suffered serious multiple injuries to his head and body in the fall and his injuries continue to be life changing.
The HSE investigation revealed that sections of the falsework, acting as a temporary structure supporting the working platform, were removed before work on the concrete slab was complete.
Laing O'Rourke Construction Limited and Expanded Structures Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Laing O'Rourke Construction Ltd was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £13,756 and Expanded Structures Ltd was fined £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £14,154.
August 2010 - A building company and one of its directors from Wembley have been fined a total of £15,000 after leaving two customers at risk of death or serious illness from exposure to carbon monoxide fumes.
Between 3 September and 8 December 2009, Rushi Construction (UK) Limited, owned by Vikas Patel, was building an extension to a home in Buckinghamshire.
Part of the extension was built around the flue outlet of a gas boiler, but the HSE investigation revealed that no Gas Safe registered engineer had been involved in the gas fitting work. Mr Patel had tried to use a sewage pipe and a washing machine vent hose, to extend the flue outlet across the new room and out a window - without success. This meant that harmful carbon monoxide gases were being released in the house, exposing the homeowners to potentially deadly fumes.
Strategic Forum Plant Safety Group - Quick Hitches best practice guidance
Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) guidance now added to the construction webpages resources section.
Improve the health and safety of your business by attending a health and safety event near you. Places currently available at the following events:
Plus many more events over the forthcoming year.
We issue eBulletins 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.
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