§ Lord Hardy of Wathasked Her Majesty's Government:
On how many occasions in 2000–01 and 2001–02 action was taken by the Health and Safety Executive in regard to dangerous or negligent practices on building sites and where inadequate arrangements threatened public safety. [HL5239]
§ Lord Macdonald of TradestonInspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) undertook over 40,000 contacts in the construction industry in 2000–01 and 2001–02. Public safety is one of the most important aspects that inspectors consider, especially where children might be at risk.
Inspectors have a range of powers available to them when they identify significant risks. These include informal verbal advice, a written report, service of an improvement notice or prohibition notice (stopping a particular activity) and/or prosecution.
The number of notices and prosecutions taken by HSE's Field Operations Directorate in connection with construction activities are set out in the table below.
Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 imposes a duty on employers and self-employed persons to ensure the health and safety of persons who are not their employees. The number of notices and prosecutions under this section where reference was made specifically to "public" or "child" in 2000–01 and 2001–02 is also set out below.
2000–01 2001–02 Improvement and Prohibition Notices issued 2,576 2,732 Improvement and Prohibition Notices under S3 HSW referring to "children" or "the public" 110 106 Legal proceedings instituted 637 556 Legal proceedings under S3 HSW referring to "children" or "the public" 36 15 Notes:
1. Figures for 2001–02 are provisional
2. Construction industry indentified by SIC 45.
In addition HSE's Field Operations Directorate investigated over 8,000 construction complaints in each of the past two years. A significant number of these complaints concerned the safety of members of the public in relation to construction work, although it is not possible to break this number down further.