Building control officers will support the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) dwindling workforce of inspectors under a new scheme being trialled for nationwide roll out.
Reported in Building magazine, the joint inspection regime will see building control officers report dangerous working practices to the HSE as part of their normal site visits. Targeting smaller sites, the scheme has been initiated in the HSE's Luton office and will cover Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
The HSE has just 124 inspectors in its construction division, whereas about 4,000 building control officers cover public and private sectors in England and Wales.
In related news, the HSE has placed a prohibition notice on a £130m Bovis Lend Lease site in west London after the death of an agency worker earlier this month.
The man, named unofficially as 38-year-old Hugues Makambila by Contract Journal, was working for construction logisitics firm Wilson James on the construction of offices for Sky Sports in Osterley, when he was hit by a steel girder on June 5.
The project team has been ordered to halt all transport movement while the HSE and the police carry out a preliminary investigation.
Source
Construction Manager
