Building contractor fined after serious failings found

Date:

7 January 2011

A Gloucester building contractor has been fined after employees were found to have lifted heavy building materials at height with no measures to prevent falls in place.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors visited a site in Dumbleton, Gloucestershire, in December 2009 and found structural steelwork weighing 92kg had been lifted into place using only scaffolding only five feet high during construction of a house extension.

Inspectors found no risk assessment in place which would have highlighted the unsuitability of this method of work.

The men had lifted the steelwork from the floor onto the scaffold and then stood the scaffold to fit the structure into final position. No measures had been taken to prevent or mitigate falls from the scaffold.

This had happened on more than one occasion and the inspection also found the scaffolding had no edge protection. He concluded the work was not adequately planned or managed.

DA Cook (Builders) Limited, based in Winchcombe, pleaded guilty at Gloucester Magistrates Court of failing to comply with section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,800.

After the hearing, Tony Woodward, HSE Inspector, said:

"The way this work was carried out, with four men lifting a heavy piece of steelwork onto a scaffolding platform and then lifting it into its final position was inappropriate and potentially dangerous.

"Manual handling as we have seen here should be avoided wherever possible and appropriate equipment used.

"In this case there was also a failure to eliminate the risk of a fall from the scaffolding platform, or even to minimise the consequences of any fall.

"An adequate risk assessment could easily have been carried out and would have shown this was an unsafe method for carrying out this work. If acted upon and implemented, it would have considerably reduced the risk of harm to those individuals.

Notes to editors

1. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states that 'It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.'
2. For more information on HSE legislation and guidance on working at height, go to http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/. For more information on HSE guidance and legislation on manual handling, go to http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/manualhandling.htm
3. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR (South West)