Health and Safety

Magistrates have given a construction boss a custodial sentence after a labourer was crushed to death while working on a house-refurbishment project in Liverpool. David Hartley, a director of North West Facilities, received a suspended 26-week jail term over the incident. The company hired self-employed worker Jakub Fischer as a…

A consultation is set to start on the number of staircases needed in high-rises to “ensure residents are safe in the event of a fire”. This week, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) called on the government to mandate the use of at least two staircases in all residential buildings…

A roofing contractor has been fined £1,000 after a worker died from a fall during the reroofing of an outbuilding on a farm in Northern Ireland. The man, who was self-employed, died from his injuries after falling more than three metres onto a concrete floor during the work carried out…

Police last night confirmed that five people had died after an explosion at a block of flats in southern Jersey. The Channel Island’s police chief added that a further four people were assumed missing following the blast in St Helier in the early hours of Saturday morning. A gas explosion…

The government has postponed a key post-Brexit change to the certification of construction products. The delay, which will see the rule change come into effect on 30 June 2025, has been welcomed by a number of trade bodies. The CE mark is a certification stamp indicating conformity with EU health,…

Six in 10 planning applications for high-rise buildings have been flagged by the Building Safety Regulator this year, Construction News can reveal. Over the course of 2022, plans for new high-rise buildings in the UK have been scrutinised for their fire safety at planning stage by the Health and Safety…

Fire-brigade bosses have raised concerns about the safety performance of modern methods of construction (MMC). In a five-page statement on the issue, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) set out a litany of issues about the construction industry’s increasing use of MMC in the post-Grenfell era. It said fire-service managers…

Mace is spending £2.5m per year on technical services in preparation for new building-safety measures, one of its senior leaders has revealed. Gareth Lewis (pictured), the contractor’s chief executive of construction, told the CN Transforming Construction conference that the company was spending that amount on a team to improve its…

Work is gradually restarting on the £680m Edmonton EcoPark construction site after operations were halted following a fatality last week. A joint statement from Spanish contractor Acciona and the client, North London Waste Authority (NLWA), said some activities resumed today. It followed a week-long shutdown after the death of a…

Almost one in five new construction jobs now contains an element of flexible working, research has revealed – but site roles are lagging behind office jobs on this front. An analysis of 6 million UK recruitment adverts by social enterprise Timewise found that 17 per cent of those targeted in…