CECA calls for more deaths data

Exclusive by Tim Wood



The Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) has called for fatality statistics to be broken down further - this time into the branches of the industry where the accidents occur.

The HSE prosecutions website does contain the various subsectors and activities in which fatalities took place, such as demolition and wrecking of buildings, the construction of water projects, plastering and joinery installation.

And CECA's economic advisor Jim Turner can't understand why they are not made public. He told CJ: "At the moment we only know the cause and region. It would be useful to learn whether they occurred within, for example, the building services, civil engineering, scaffolding or plant industries."

But HSE's statistics manager Gavin Parkinson said there were no plans to introduce figures by subsector at the moment.

Last week, Construction Confederation director of health and safety Suzannah Thursfield urged the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to release figures quarterly to make them easier to monitor.

l Working on London Underground (LU) is relatively safe compared to some sites. LU's annual report reveals one employee/contractor death in the year to 31 March. There were no deaths in the previous year.