Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) - General - Health and Safety Construction Summit

Date: 15 Mar 2005

At the recent health and safety construction summit much was made of the outstanding safety record at Heathrow Terminal 5. There should be no surprise about that; T5 is an aviation project being delivered by the construction industry to the standards and within the culture of the aviation industry.

With millions of people using airport facilities it is essential to know about complex supply chain management and integrated teams; BAA certainly do and they apply those principles to their construction projects.

Recent developments at the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) suggest that the government is preparing a cohesive regulatory approach on all its public contracts. The new mandatory rules will pull together current fragmented requirements and formalize them into a central policy. Some of these measures could include compulsory CSCS membership for all those working on public sector sites and mandatory membership of the Considerate Constructors Scheme for contractors.

Chris Blythe CIOB chief executive said, "Successful projects in respect of health and safety, happen where the client's own ethos and brand protection is strong enough to overcome the structural inertia in construction which militates against good health and safety practice.

"There is an opportunity for construction's largest client, the government, to challenge the industry and inspire change in many areas. The government's own ethos in respect of promoting safety and training should be reflected in the construction of public projects.

"The new regulations proposed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) on public contracts would no doubt improve health and safety standards by requiring CSCS membership of all those working on public sector sites. But we still feel that the government could do more.

"If the government adopted a policy of employing contactors with a minimum training requirement on each project this would only have a positive impact on the skills shortages issue we currently face. Furthermore if the proposed regulations also included minimum standards for site conditions we would see a knock on benefit, not only in health and safety, but also in the image of the industry."

Where do I go now?: » View the latest news items » View the news archive » Subscribe to Weekly Construction Newsletter » Submit news