Improve supervisor skills or risk more deaths on site

The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has warned that construction bosses must do more to get supervisors up-to-scratch, after it was revealed deaths had risen 28% in 2006/07.

The number of fatalities was 77, up from 60 last year, and the highest figure for five years.

HSC commissioner John Spanswick said: "If you look at the majority of fatalities, there have been some common themes. One is that there hasn't been a competent supervisor anywhere near the incident that caused the fatality. In other cases, there's been an inadequate point-of-work risk assessment.

"The construction industry has insufficient resource to deal with the work that's in front of it. I suspect as a result of that, people have appeared in supervisory positions almost unwillingly, with insufficient training," he added.

The view was echoed by a project manager, who contacted CJ after the figures were published: "On one job, the appointed person was a failed ex-banksman who the tower crane driver described as a 'bloody dangerous idiot'. But as he was the only one with nothing to do, the company sent him on a course to be the appointed person."

Construction Confederation director of health and safety Shelley Atkinson-Frost backed calls for the industry to look at supervisors' training and staff procurement.

Both the HSC and the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) batted away questions about how the number of HSE inspectors might influence the figures.

HSE chief executive Geoffrey Podger said there had been no reduction in construction inspectors. But he added: "The HSE does not support the view that you can relate in any way the number of fatalities to the number of inspectors." He would not be drawn on whether numbers might reduce in future.

Instead, the HSC and HSE called for more buy-in from industry, the day after secretary of state for work and pensions Peter Hain's announcement that he would summon all construction parties to a new safety forum in September.

The forum will include contractors, unions, designers and suppliers and will encourage larger contractors to set an example for those further down the supply chain, especially in housebuilding and refurbishment.