DESIGNERS CAN DO MORE

HSE press release E234:03A - 21 November 2003

Eliminating or reducing risk to construction workers through design is be the subject of new practical guides, research reports, new website material and a series of awareness days and inspection activities in coming months.

Each year approximately 80 construction workers die and thousands more sustain major injuries due to workplace accidents. Recent research into construction accidents confirms that between 17% and 47% of these accidents could have been prevented or mitigated had the designers taken different choices or actions before construction work started on site.

To address this issue the Construction Industry Council (CIC), Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) joined forces today to announce and launch a range of initiatives aimed at maximising the potential of designers to eliminate hazards and reduce risks to health and safety during construction, maintenance and demolition of their designs.

The new materials and activities launched today included:

• 18 new practical guides by designers for designers, available from the new website www.safetyindesign.org (CIC & SID)
• Revised edition of 'CDM work sector guidance for designers' (CIRIA)
• New website material devoted specifically to designers (HSE)
• Research reports considering accidents and the role of designers (HSE)
• Publicity for a series of Designer Awareness Days (HSE and local industry partners)
• Publicity for inspection activity planned for the West and North East of England (HSE)

Douglas Oakervee, President of ICE chaired the event where Liz Bennett, Chairman of the Health and Safety Board of ICE said: "Designers can do more to eliminate and reduce risks to the health and safety of construction workers. The range of new initiatives being announced today has been created to assist designers in improving their performance in safety in design. There is a clear link between design decisions and death, injury and ill health in construction. To help designers, CIC's new practical design guides have been written by designers for designers and aim to provide 'real life' advice and information on how to incorporate safety and health considerations into the design process."

CIC has developed 18 of about 30 practical design guides on how to eliminate and reduce hazards. The guides also provide advice on what information designers need to pass on to Principal Contractors to enable them to manage the residual risks on site.

CIRIA has also updated its substantial CDM work sector guidance for designers (C604), together with two accompanying guides, Practical guidance for clients and clients' agents (C602) and Practical guidance for planning supervisors (C603). The reports will be available from CIRIA from mid-January 2004.

Alan Gilbertson, Health & Safety Project Manager of CIRIA said: "Providing designers with practical guidance about their role in reducing health and safety risks and their responsibilities under CDM is crucial to improving performance."

Also launched today was a new section of the HSE website devoted specifically to designers, which includes links to recently published research reports that looked specifically at construction accidents and considers what level of influence designers can have to prevent or mitigate injury and ill health.

HSE also promoted a series of Designer Awareness Days, which started this month and will continue around the country over the coming months, at today's launch and also announced that it will be repeating the 'meet the designer on site' inspection activity in two locations during the next six months to further raise awareness of designer's health and safety responsibilities in construction.

Kevin Myers, HSE Chief Inspector for Construction said: "I find it encouraging that so many committed people in the design profession have worked together to develop and produce the various materials and initiatives that we are publicising today. HSE is committed to working with industry to achieve real and lasting improvements in health and safety in construction. Today's announcements demonstrate best practice in design. I hope that through continued partnership between HSE and the design profession best practice will become standard practice."

Notes to editors

1. For further detailed information about each of the initiatives listed in this press release, please refer to the attached background notes.

2. Regulation 13 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994 (CDM Regs) place specific duties on designers to reduce risks to health and safety during the construction, maintenance and demolition of their designs.

3. The construction industry has committed to a step change in health and safety performance. This was demonstrated through setting challenging Revitalising targets and adopting action plans at the Construction Safety Summit, which took place on 27 February 2001. The construction industry set the following Revitalising targets for improvement. To reduce:

• the incidence rate of fatalities and major injuries by 40 per cent by 2004/5 and 66 per cent by 2009/10;
• the incidence rate of cases of work-related ill health by 20 per cent by 2004/5 and 50 per cent by 2009/10; and
• the number of working days lost from work-related injury and ill health by 20 per cent by 2004/5 and by 50 per cent by 2009/10.

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