Health and Safety

New regulations requiring second staircases will not be enforced until at least 2026, the housing secretary has announced. Developers will be granted a 30-month transition period within which building regulations applications may follow existing fire-safety rules, housing secretary Michael Gove said in a statement on Tuesday (24 October). The 30-month…

Two companies have been fined a total of £46,000 after a worker fractured his skull falling through a stairwell. Bolton firm Challenger Building Services was fined £30,000 following the incident at a construction site in March 2021, while Total Brickwork, based in Runcorn, Cheshire, was made to pay £16,000. The…

The government will not set a time limit on when accountable persons must share golden-thread information with the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and others – despite responses to a consultation calling for a precise timeframe. In a July 2022 consultation, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) said…

The government has named more than 40 more schools and colleges with buildings that contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC). An updated list published by the Department for Education (DfE) includes 43 more education settings where RAAC has been confirmed, taking the total to 214. Of these, 202 are still…

A Hampshire-based construction firm has been fined more than £50,000 after a 16-year-old on work experience suffered serious injuries after being trapped under a tractor. The incident happened in August 2021, when Tom Cutler was gaining paid experience of vehicle-repair work at Earlcoate Construction and Plant Hire Ltd in Fordingbridge.…

Almost three-quarters of applications to the government’s £4.5bn Building Safety Fund (BSF) have been assessed as not eligible, according to new government figures. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) says that 3,611 applications for the scheme – intended to fund the remediation of unsafe non-aluminium composite material…

Dame Judith Hackitt has told Construction News that she is positive about the new building safety regulatory regime but, in a speech yesterday, she also warned the industry to anticipate a “fundamental cultural shift”. The author of the 2018 Building a Safer Future report said that she felt confident the…

The Ladder Association has raised “serious concerns” that unsafe and potentially dangerous ladders are being sold online to UK builders and consumers. In research commissioned by the association, 70 per cent of the commercially available multiple-purpose ladders tested did not to meet “minimum safety requirements”. The products that failed the…

A coalition of unions has called for the removal of asbestos from all public buildings within the next 40 years. Unions representing more than four million workers wrote to political party leaders to ask them to include in their general election manifestos a policy to take asbestos out of non-domestic…

A crane company is being prosecuted after the death of three men at a construction site in Crewe. Falcon Tower Crane Services will appear in Chester Crown Court on Friday (6 October) charged with health and safety breaches following a fatal crane collapse six years ago. Rhys Barker, 18, from…