Get the health and safety message to small sites

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) launched its new-look construction division this week. We are promised "major changes" and an increased emphasis on "intelligent approaches to health and safety up the supply chain".

Well that's great. More inspectors, more site blitzes - just what the industry needs. No, that's not sarcasm - it really does need it. The trouble is that the HSE will never have anywhere near enough inspectors to patrol the thousands of UK construction sites.

Of course the HSE is the first to recognise this and the executive is right to place the emphasis on trying to get contractors to implement good health and safety policies on site in the first place, rather than pressing for prosecutions after accidents have already happened.

But the two deaths reported on page 2 this week only serve to highlight just what a massive task the industry has in getting the message through to the people who need it most. One man died after a spillage of paint stripper, while another died after falling from a scaffold. The crux here is that both deaths occurred on small domestic property jobs.

Without trying to make assumptions about the actual causes of these two unfortunate deaths, they perfectly illustrate how difficult it is to get the health and safety message across to people working on the thousands of small construction sites in the UK.

Ways need to be found to get the health and safety message through to these people. The idea is unpopular, but maybe the only way to ensure the message is heard, is a compulsory registration scheme, with health and safety training as part of the qualifying criteria. If a firm isn't registered, it can't trade - simple as that.