The facts:
- 7% of the UK workforce work within the construction industry
- 25% of fatal accident’s result from construction sites; and
- 16% of major accidents
It is clear from the above statistics that working within the construction industry is both a risky business and darn right dangerous. If your brave enough to work on a construction site it’s important to ensure that both you and your Employer do everything to ensure that the workplace is as safe as possible. Being lax on safety on a Construction site is a complete NO-NO and from our experience is like playing with fire!
In relation to the Health and Safety law on Construction Sites, the relevant law governing this is: the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.
Who is who in construction projects?
- The client – the person who seeks or accepts the services that may be used in his project.
- Planning coordinators – these MUST be appointed in notifiable projects (if the work will, or is likely to, last longer than 30 days or involves more than 500 person days on site). Their role is to ensure that the Regulations are complied with; to produce a health and safety file and check the competency of the appointees.
- Designers – They are obliges to consider health and safety matters and the risks to the end user of the builder. A designer may be a client or a contractor.
- Principal contractors – They plan all aspects of the construction phase; check the competency of subcontractors and are obliged to consult with members of the workforce in their planning stages.
Who is responsible for any breaches of health and safety?
This can often be a complicated and somewhat messy task, as there are so many people involved in construction tasks i.e. contractors, subcontractors etc. It is not unusual for the insurers to try and ‘pass the book’ between different parties on the basis of who is responsible for the accident.
Responsibility for any breach of the health and safety regulations is based upon ‘control’ of the situation – this will be key in determining the correct Defendant. ‘Control’ involves assessing the facts in each individual case and it is illustrated in the following 3 cases:
- 1. McCook v Lobo
- 2. Hood v Mitie Services
- 3. King v Farmer
The 3 cases involve 3 different situations and show how the correct Defendant was established and why.
You could research the above cases for further detail in helping you to understand the roles of the above individuals in constructions case or you could give us a call and speak to our Construction claims lawyers for totally free advice.
It is important for you to have a full understanding of the roles of the above individuals and also of the ‘control’ test.
Next time you are on site, take note of who it is you report to, who has delegated your tasks for the day and whom has overall control of the site on that day? You will begin to have a better understanding of who may be liable should you be involved in any accidents at work and hopefully with more understanding of the dangers on construction sites these accidents can reduce over time; because at the moment there are far too many serious accidents on construction sites.
