Conclusions and recommendations
Part 1: Is the HSE making a difference to health
and safety in the construction industry?
1. The HSE should trial a mixture of approaches
to its programme of blitzes to establish whether carrying out
visits unannounced would reveal more serious breaches of Health
and Safety regulations than publicised visits.
The HSE should also follow up blitzes with unannounced visits
at a later date to confirm that improvements sought to health
and safety on site have been sustained.
2. To better assess its impact, the HSE should
consider an annual omnibus survey to determine whether attitudes
of employers and employees towards key health and safety issues
are changing over time. Measuring trends
in health and safety is made more difficult currently because
of under reporting of accidents and changes in the way that existing
surveys are carried out.
3. To assess the HSE's
impact on trends in accident rates, as opposed to other factors
which might have an influence, the HSE should commission research
to establish whether there is a link between accident rates, structural
changes in the industry and changes in the volume and type of
work being undertaken by the construction industry.
4. The HSE should measure and report on the
impact of its work against the sector's activities which carry
the greatest risks; for example, falls
from height and workplace transport on site.
Part 2: Is the HSE strategic enough in its approach?
5. The HSE should act to encourage clients,
architects, designers and others to put more emphasis on long-term
health and safety implications when designing buildings,
for example by emphasising the business benefits to be derived
such as lower maintenance costs over the longer term. It should
also consider disclosing the health and safety records of high
profile buildings.
6. The HSE should encourage government clients
to prioritise health and safety requirements, for
example by providing a checklist of key risks at each stage of
a project, which clients could use to question potential contractors
on how they propose to manage such risks.
7. To increase the deterrent effect of prosecution,
the HSE should consider asking the Home Secretary to seek a direction
to the newly established Sentencing Advisory Panel Council to
frame a sentencing guideline on health and safety offences.
Breaches of health and safety regulations are serious criminal
offences, and legislation provides for penalties, including unlimited
fines in some circumstances. Courts have, however, tended not
to impose maximum penalties available.
Part 3: Is the HSE tackling the risks caused by
the structure of the industry?
8. The HSE should determine whether there
is a link between the tax status of vulnerable workers and the
incidence of fatalities and major injuries in the construction
industry.
9. The HSE should work with the Home Office
and other departments to access intelligence on illegal workers
and the activity of gang masters, and alert employers and contractors
to the dangers of engaging with such people.
10. The HSE should collect hard evidence for
its view that targeting inspection activities at larger companies
influences others along the supply chain.
Influencing those employed by smaller firms, for example, as sub-contractors
on large contracts, may in practice require more direct targeting
of smaller operators.
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