It has been a grim summer for the construction industry with seven fatalities in just over two weeks.

On 14 August Mark Evans was killed when the roof of a school he was helping to demolish collapsed in Ludlow, Shropshire. The next day, Christopher White was found dead in a lift shaft in an office development in Kingsway, central London.

On 6 August Stephen Griffiths fell from scaffolding in the City of London. Later that week James Gordon fell to his death from scaffolding at Worthing High School in West Sussex.

Jan Tobolski, a Polish worker for B&S Construction died on 1 August after he was hit by a girder in Manchester. On 31 July a worker was crushed to death during the demolition of a building in south London and a road gang worker died after a motorcycle hit a maintenance van in Essex.

Peter Hain, the work and pensions secretary, is holding a safety summit on 17 September to address the rising number of construction-related fatalities.

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