SEC Group sets safety priorities

An audit of CSCS compliance will take place on 7 April 2005. The audit is being organised by the Joint Major Contractors’ Group (JMCG) and will check card holders amongst the directly employed, subcontractors and agency staff.

Specialist Engineering Contractors’ (SEC) Group chair Trevor Hursthouse announced the audit at a construction industry health and safety summit held in London on 24 February. “Over 150 000 in the specialist engineering sector have undertaken health and safety training in the last three years in order to obtain CSCS-affiliated cards,” reported Hursthouse. He stressed that this must increase and the card’s potential be fully used: “We must insist that all those present on site must carry the skillcard and that this is regularly enforced.”

The impact of the cards in influencing site health and safety was backed by Peter Lobban, chief executive of CITB Construction Skills. He reported a “huge response” from the industry following the 2001 Health and Safety Summit where a full CSCS-compliant workforce was called for, with inquiries up from 200/day to 4000/day. Lobban announced that the cost of the test will be halved to £17.50 from 4 April. “This will encourage the take-up of the test in SMEs,” he predicted. At an expected take-up rate of 250 000 tests/y, this will save £4 million/y, the benefits of which will be passed back into the industry.

The SEC Group set three key areas for action at the Summit to improve health and safety:

• integrating specialist engineering design to efficiently manage health and safety risks;
• set standard health and safety pre-qualification schemes;
• the use of a new site safety access certificate.

The concept of the Site Safety Access Certificate is “to enable each trade to discuss safety needs before they enter the site,” explained Hursthouse. It is based on an existing British Constructional Steelwork Association initiative.

To be completed by the main contractor, it covers areas such as site excavations and presence of asbestos. The scheme is voluntary, however Hursthouse predicted: “We expect substantial take-up and look for co-operation from main contractors.” He urged contractors to “refuse to accept or enter unsafe sites.”

The certificate can be downloaded from: http://www.secgroup.org.uk/ pdfs/sechandovercert.pdf.