With reference to Colin Harding’s comments on the CSCS scheme (10 June, page 36), I am a health and safety adviser in the construction industry and have attained a nationally recognised qualification through the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health.

I was told that I could not work on some sites unless I had acquired the appropriate CSCS card, which meant paying a good sum of money, taking time away from work and sitting a ridiculous health and safety questionnaire run by some private enterprise in a local school. This scheme is a total waste of time – it is just a money-making exercise for the people who organise and run it, does nothing for health and safety on site and, when you ask operatives what they think, it has the negative effect of labelling health and safety with the scheme, so operatives are even more anti-safety than before.

Constant supervision and communication (daily between all parties) about where contractors are working, to identify where any potential health and safety problems will occur, should resolve most safety issues on a daily basis.

Name withheld

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