HSE Failings Exposed At Select Committee Hearings

Serious concerns have been raised about how the Health and Safety Executive collects vital information following construction fatalities, during an evidence session of Work and Pensions Select Committee today (Wednesday 10^th June).

During the course of the session where Judith Hackett the chair of the HSE and Geoffrey Podger the chief executive gave evidence, it was revealed that their organisation was failing to properly record the employment status of construction workers killed at work, despite having given repeated assurances that they would do so.

Select Committee member Tom Levitt MP revealed that despite the HSE having pledged in September 2007 to begin recording whether a fatally injured construction worker was working under the notorious Construction Industry Scheme, that information was still not being properly processed.

Mr Levitt revealed that recent answers made to Freedom of Information requests by UCATT about whether workers were working CIS or not when they were fatally injured were wrong. In answer to UCATT’s FOI request the union was told that only 4 construction workers who were killed in 2008 were definitely working CIS and in two other cases it had not been possible to ascertain if workers were CIS. UCATT have proof that this gravely underestimates the mortality rates of CIS workers.

Mr Levitt drew to the committee’s attention the case of Sonny Holland a 20 year old “apprentice scaffolder” who was killed in April 2008. Sonny’s family confirmed that he was working CIS and had in fact received a self-employed rebate in the week he was killed.

Despite this the HSE had failed to record Sonny’s CIS status when answering FOI questions about workers who were killed in 2008.

Mr Podger said of the matter: “In our perspective we have the data we need and we will act on it.”

Workers on CIS are considered by employers to be self-employed but the majority are in fact bogus self-employed. They have all the characteristics of an employee but none of the legal protections. Workers can be sacked at a moments notice and will not complain about dangerous sites because of the fear of being sacked. The bogus self-employed are likely to work on unorganised sites with lower health and safety levels, meaning they are at much greater risk of being injured or killed at work.

Alan Ritchie, General Secretary of construction union UCATT, said: “It is vitally important that this failure to collect crucial information has been exposed. Every year many construction workers needlessly die because of the casualised nature of the industry. The HSE will never properly address the issue while they continue to take an ostrich like attitude to the problem and refuse to address the fact that the way the industry is organised leads to workers being killed and maimed.”

Also during the evidence session the Mr Podger failed to rule out possible cuts in the future funding of the HSE’s construction inspectorate.

Mr Podger, said: “We are not looking to dismantle our investment in construction if it is at all avoidable. And: “We will make a case for keeping our current construction resources.”

Mr Ritchie, added: “These commitments are weak. Construction is by far the most dangerous industry in Britain. Construction deaths account for nearly 30 per cent of workplace deaths but only 10 per cent of the HSE’s inspectors are in construction. To suggest that number could possibly fall further is outrageous.”

In 2007/8, 72 construction workers were killed; the figure for 2008/9 has not yet been published

For Further information contact Barckley Sumner on 0780 2329235