Construction Health and Safety campaign back on the road

HSC press release C022:05 - 1 September 2005

The Construction Industry Advisory Committee, (CONIAC) are pleased to announce that the industry's leading health and safety campaign, Working Well Together (WWT), will once again visit construction workers at their places of work during a five week nation-wide roadshow.

Continuing the success of previous roadshows, this year's tour highlights the areas of greatest risk to health and safety on site and demonstrates how to stay safe and healthy.

It also promotes cultural change - encouraging everyone to work together to bring about improvements.

Sponsored by several of the construction industries major stakeholders including, HSS Hire, Berkeley Homes, Bovis Lend Lease, Gleeson, Persimmon Group, Taylor Woodrow and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the roadshow will visit large and small construction sites across Great Britain, Scotland and Wales, starting at a Persimmon Homes site in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland, on Monday 5 September.

The 2005 roadshow, which promotes best practice and encourages everyone in the industry to take action to improve the construction industries health and safety performance, features interactive demonstrations highlighting the importance of safe lifting techniques, transport viewing aids, safety harnesses and gives workers an opportunity to test their hearing levels.

An important theme for the 2005 roadshow is 'worker engagement'. The best clients, contractors and professionals, in the industry are demonstrating that where this approach is adopted on sites, the incident rates for accidents, ill health and near misses fall dramatically .

Note to editors

1. Working Well Together (WWT) is the country's leading construction health and safety campaign, supported by the construction industry, trade unions and the Health and Safety Executive. For further information check out the WWT Campaign website at wwt.uk.com. To join WWT call 0845 27 27 500.
2. This year the WWT roadshow is sponsored by HSS Hire, with additional sponsorship from Berkeley Homes, Bovis Lend Lease, Gleeson, Persimmon Group, Taylor Woodrow, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), Scafftag, Constructing Excellence, Trades Union Congress (TUC), and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

3. The WWT roadshow tour dates are: -

   05 - 9 September - Scotland & Northern England
   12- 16 September - Scotland & Northern England
   26 - 30 September - SE England
   10 -14 October - Wales, Midlands, SW England
   17 - 21 October - Wales, Midlands, SW England

4. Construction Industry Advisory Committee (CONIAC) was set up to advise the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), on the construction industry. CONIAC was reconstituted at the beginning of 2004, with a smaller membership, and a new approach. The new approach reflects the desire of HSC to work in partnership with intermediary groups in the construction industry, to take forward the new HSC Strategy in order to deliver the Revitalising Health and Safety targets within those constituencies.
   
   CONIAC has six sub groups to take forward its workplan. These sub groups align closely with the aims of the Construction Divisions Priority Programme.
   • Designer Working Party
   • Safety Working Party
   • Working Well Together Steering Group
   • Occupational Health Working party
   • Worker Engagement Working Party
   • CDM Regulations Review Working party
5. After falling from height the most common kinds of fatal injury are being struck by a moving/falling object, being struck by a moving vehicle and contact with electricity.
6. In 2004/5, 72 workers died and thousands more sustained major injuries whilst working in the construction industry.
7. The Construction Health and Safety Summit 2005 was one part of the process to ensure that the construction industry takes the action it needs to in order to meet its Revitalising targets in 2009/10. The Summit aimed to provide an opportunity for the construction industry to review its progress on the commitments given in 2001 and commit to further action. At the 2001 Summit the industry set the following targets for improvement:
   • Reduce the incidence rate of fatalities and major injuries by 40% by 2004/5 and 66% by 2009/10;
   • Reduce the incidence rate of cases of work-related ill health by 20% by 2004/5 and 50% by 2009/10:
   • Reduce the number of working days lost per 100,000 workers from work-related injury and ill health by 20% by 2004/5 and by 50% by 2009/10.

Press enquiries

All enquiries from journalists should be directed to the HSE Press Office