Building Control to bolster health and safety on site

The Health and Safety Executive and the Building Control Alliance have signed an agreement to work more closely to improve health and safety standards on construction sites.

The arrangement means that the HSE and building control professionals will co-operate to help and support each other, for example, by providing health and safety advice. The agreement clearly distinguishes their separate regulatory roles and responsibilities.

The BCA represents building control professionals responsible for ensuring compliance with Building Regulations, whether in local authorities or the private sector, and the professional bodies that accredit them. Building Control professionals regularly visit sites and are in a good position to promote good health and safety practice to duty holders.

Philip White, HSE’s chief inspector of construction, said: “Today’s agreement does not change a duty holder’s responsibility to protect workers health and safety but has created another opportunity to get potentially life-saving advice to those responsible for health and safety standards on construction sites.”

Diane Marshall, group head of building control at NHBC, said: “Building Control professionals are ideally placed to raise awareness of health and safety issues on construction sites during the course of their inspections.

“This agreement creates a mechanism for Building Control professionals to discharge their professional duty of care in a simple and straightforward manner by working closely with our HSE colleagues.”