Construction Deaths Rise As Cuts Come In
8 April 2011
SHP reports that the number of deaths in the construction industry rose by around 15 per cent last year, fuelling concerns that the cost-cutting measures being implemented by the HSE will reverse the downward trend of recent years.
The regulator's head of construction, Philip White, revealed the increase at a conference in London on April 5th on Safety Schemes in Procurement, indicating that competence - or lack of it - was "clearly a feature" in many of the fatalities.
We would wholeheartedly agree with his statement, the first cuts are always in training and, as a consequence, the competence of staff/contractors then suffers. In addition many clients believe that checking competence is a costly and unnecessary exercise. We believe that the lessons we have all learned over many years have shown that cutting out training/development can be a costly error should you (the client) be taken to court!
For more on this story go to SHP Online.