When HSE concerns and an Improvement Notice weren’t enough to prevent a near miss
What happened?
A previous visit from a HSE inspector to a construction site highlighted concerns about security issues, but they were not addressed. An improvement notice was then served on the principal contractor.
A two-year-old child gained access to the site, and was riding his bike when he fell into a drain, the cover of which had been removed. Fortunately, the child was shaken but not injured.
Legal Outcome
The contractor was fined a total of £10,000, and ordered to pay £6,668 in costs after pleading guilty to two offences under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007.
What can we learn from what happened?
Construction sites can be a magnet for children, so their security must be prioritised because they can be so dangerous. There are a number of prosecutions that relate to unauthorised access to construction sites – this is one of many.
The HSE will always prioritise construction as a sector, and within that will always prioritise inadequate security, so when they raise concerns they really need to acted up. For those concerns to turn into an Improvement Notice simply escalates the status of that concern. So, when a child did access the site, even though the child did not suffer any harm, despite these enforcement actions, it is no surprise that prosecution followed given that other attempts to deal with the situation had not succeeded.
It is also worth emphasising that, as is often the case, a prosecution does not rely on harm being caused – it’s about what could have happened, not always what did happen, and we know that unauthorised access to construction sites have sadly resulted in serious or fatal accidents.
Source of Information
SHP In-Court