CONTRACTORS URGED TO ADDRESS POOR SITE MANAGEMENT FOLLOWING PROSECUTION

HSE press release E231:03 - 18 November 2003

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today urged contractors to make sure they manage worksites effectively after Walsall magistrates fined Amey Rail Limited £9,000 and awarded £7,280 prosecution costs in connection with a poorly managed site at Erdington, Birmingham in August 2002.

Last week (Monday 10 November), Amey Rail Ltd pleaded guilty to two offences of breaching sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (the HSW Act) by failing to ensure the safety of workers during railway engineering works at Erdington on the weekend of 17-18 August 2002.

Two HSE Railway Inspectors made a night visit to the track relaying site as part of a programme of inspecting planned engineering works to ensure risks to trackworkers from train movements were properly controlled. They found a site where Amey were not effectively managing who was working and where they were. There were engineering train and road-rail plant movements but workmen were not under the protection of a Controller of Site Safety (CoSS); managers had not attended key planning meetings; and places of safety from train movements described in a safety briefing were, in many places, overgrown and impassable.

Speaking after the case, HM Principal Inspector of Railways, Allan Spence said: "This site was a weekend engineering possession for track renewal which had been planned for many months but for which basic site safety arrangements had not been properly thought through. Risk assessments were inadequate, site managers were not in effective control and Inspectors found people at real risk from train movements.

"The contractor knew they had weaknesses in this area after two previous incidents at Marlow and Newbury in March 2002 and as a result, two months beforehand HSE had served an Improvement Notice requiring them to take action to improve control of worksites. The company were clearly warned that future similar failings would be considered for prosecution. However, our inspection at this site showed that the same sort of problems remained."

Notes to editors

1. Section 2(1) of the HSW Act states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."

2. Section 3(1) of the Act states: "It shall be the duty of very employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."

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