Construction Sector – Useful Health &
Safety Information
Why is Health and Safety important in this sector?
Every year many construction workers are killed or injured as a
result of the work that they do; others suffer ill health, such as
musculoskeletal disorders, or work related disease such as
dermatitis and asbestosis. Unlike other industries, in construction
these hazards are not restricted to those who are working on site.
Children and members of the public are also killed or injured every
year by construction work, typically, because the work was not
adequately planned or effectively controlled. Most accidents on
construction sites are similar to those in other industries, caused
as example by slip, trip or fall, falling materials and equipment,
contact with vehicles or electrical hazards. However, due to the
nature of the workplace, in construction often these accidents are
serious or fatal.
Situations where you might need health and safety support
Health and safety management in construction projects involves
many people, these ‘duty holders’ have specific duties and these
duties are set out in the Construction (Design and Management)
Regulations (referred to in the construction industry as CDM).
These regulations apply to all construction work and are based on
sensible and proportion actions to prepare, organise and manage
work on site safely. As a client having construction work done you
are also identified as a duty holder, it is important that you seek
competent and impartial advice to guide you from the outset of any
project.
The effort devoted to planning and managing health and safety in
construction should be proportionate to the risks and complexity of
the project. The focus should always be on the actions necessary to
eliminate, reduce or manage the risks. As a business within this
sector, understanding your duties and planning for safety on each
project should be your priority.
Where the duration of a project or manpower used on site reaches
the thresholds identified in the CDM Regulations, the work that you
undertake may become ‘notifiable’ to the Health and Safety
Executive. In such cases, duty holders will have additional duties;
these duties include seeking competent advice and appointing
competent persons.
Actions that you will need to take
- Ensure that you understand your role as a duty holder on each
project and are competent to fulfil that role or have appointed
competent persons
- Ensure you have access to competent health and safety advice,
both in planning, organising and delivering work on site
- Provide health and safety training to your employees at all
levels, your duties may extend to others such as sub
contractors
- Ensure that all work is planned, organised and effectively
supervised
- Ensure you know how people could be harmed and put in place
controls required to manage those risks
- Make sure the risks are documented in risk assessments and the
methods of work set out clearly in method statements
- Ensure key controls measures are communicated, both through
your regular training and site inductions
RBS
Mentor can help you
with all of these aspects – be it through auditing your current
documents, liaising with and supporting your appointed Competent
Person, providing 24/7 advice or providing training.
Consequences of failure to take action
Inspectors from the HSE enforce health and safety in
construction. Inspectors are legally empowered to:
- Visit your workplace or construction site without notice
- Investigate accidents on site, carry out inspections and take
enforcement action where the site is unsafe or there is risk to
people and where statutory duties are not complied with
- Investigate complaints, both from your employees, Trade Unions
or members of the public where these relate to the site or methods
of work
- Talk to employees, safe representatives or others, take
photographs and copies of documents
If there is a problem, formal action can be taken. This action
may become a matter of public record and will be available to the
public and potential or existing clients. In construction, the
action taken often involves serving a notice requiring improvement,
or may as example prohibit the use of plant and machinery. Often
access to the site or a work area may be prohibited until the
requirements of the notice are complied with.
For the most serious breaches of health and safety law, there
may be prosecution of company or an individual such as a Director,
Manager or even employees. In Scotland a report may be made to the
Procurator Fiscal with a view to prosecution.
It is important however to remember that the failure to take
action to manage safety in construction often leads to serious
injury or a death.
RBS
Mentor can support
you in ensuring you workplace and/or site is safe and complies with
legislation. By helping you instil a safety culture through
providing the correct documentation and working with your staff to
get them confident about Risk Assessments, as well as supporting
you with a 24/7 advice line, you can be confident you are in the
best position to keep your workers safe.