Health & Safety

Corporate manslaughter and health and safety offences can result in unlimited fines or even a prison sentence. The courts try to apply a consistent approach to sentencing across England and Wales, and there is a Sentencing Council which publishes guidelines on the appropriate level of fine/prison sentence, depending on a range of factors, such as […]

Autumn always reminds me of a case some years ago; a council was considering felling some horse chestnut trees because the conkers could make pedestrians slip, or children could suffer serious head injuries if the sticks they used to dislodge them meant the conkers landed on their heads. This is the kind of approach that […]

While the construction industry has been dealing with the recession (too many people, not enough work) and now the recovery from the recession (not enough people, not enough bricks) the Health and Safety Executive has been busy thinking how it might improve the CDM regulations. As a result of the recession, the HSE has suffered […]

Gillian Birkby examines the legal implications of Health and Safety Executive proposals on changes to the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations with an eye to how they will work in practice. The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) aims in updating the CDM Regulations 2007 include improving worker protection, health and safety on smaller construction sites […]

There has been a growing trend in London to construct basements as a means of extending properties. Bearing in mind that land values in the capital remain high (and are rising still higher), add to the mix the historic character of certain boroughs which limits the scope to extend houses above ground, it is understandable […]

If an employer causes personal injury after 1 October 2013 the injured person’s right to bring proceedings for breach of statutory duty (e.g. failure to comply with the Asbestos Regulations, CDM Regulations etc.) will no longer apply. This means that personal injury will no longer normally be a matter of strict liability (i.e. liability without […]

There have been significant advances in awareness of the health and safety consequences of design and construction. Hopefully we will never again see disasters like the failure of the walkway onto the Ramsgate ro-ro ferry. But are there any circumstances where a completed project can legitimately put the end users at risk to their health […]

Appointing a BIM manager early on a project is important to gain maximum benefit and avoid disputes. Is there already someone on the team who could take the job on though? One of the most important questions for the construction industry at the moment is, who should be appointed as the BIM manager on a […]

In August 2012, the Court of Appeal heard a case between the sweet manufacturer Trebor Basset (part of the Cadbury group) and ADT Fire and Security. Trebor had a popcorn plant where corn was popped in pans of oil before being transported to a hopper for packaging. Trebor instructed ADT to design and install a […]

Parties negotiating contracts can find themselves spending a great deal of time refining their contractual obligations, be they “reasonable endeavours”, “best endeavours”, “all reasonable endeavours” or some other standard. However, as a recent case highlights, the most important way of avoiding unwanted repercussions is certainty in the obligation itself. The Court of Appeal had to […]

According to some, design and build is the right procurement method for all occasions. It started life as a quick and easy way of building industrial sheds where the design was minimal. Giving the contractor the design risk on more complex projects soon became attractive to those employers looking for a one-stop shop approach. But […]

Protecting workers from the effects of asbestos has been a priority of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for several years, so it is surprising to find that the Asbestos Regulations 2006 apparently did not fully implement the EU directive on asbestos. While there could be some debate on whether the 2006 Regulations were compliant, […]