Inquiry commissioned into accident fatalities in construction
James Purnell of the Department for Work and Pensions has commissioned an inquiry into why the construction industry has so many fatalities as a result of accidents - 5th December 2008
Construction industry
accidents at work leading to fatalities are to
be investigated as James Purnell, the Secretary of
State at the
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has
commissioned an inquiry.
Rita Donaghy has been appointed as independent Chair
to the inquiry; she has held many public
appointments among which were a Member of the TUC
General Council, President of the TUC and more
recently Chair of ACAS. She said of the appointment:
“I am keen to get started and work with the trade
unions, the industry and the Health and Safety
Executive to see what lessons we learn from the root
causes of
construction accidents so that we can improve
the health and safety
of construction workers.”
The inquiry will report to Ministers next year with
independent reviewers with detailed knowledge of the
construction industry assisting Rita Donaghy.
It will be carried out in three phases, first to
look at existing work undertaken, and where
workplace
accidents have led to fatalities and highlight
any particularly vulnerable areas of work. Second,
to analyse in depth the causes including any
external reasons not covered by
health and safety systems.
Thirdly, to report back to Ministers and
the Health and
Safety Executive’s (HSE) board.
On commissioning the inquiry James Purnell said:
“The construction industry is one of the most
dangerous sectors in the country - over 2,800 people
have died from injuries they received as a result of
construction work in the past 25 years.
“No one can find it acceptable that this number of
people have died directly as a cause of their work
and we are not making sufficient progress on
preventing this total of human misery.
"The high number of fatalities in construction
sector continue to be of particular concern to us
which is why I have asked Rita Donaghy to Chair an
inquiry looking at the underlying causes of
construction fatal incidents to see what more can
done to reduce this terrible toll.”
