The North West Region of construction union UCATT are calling on the Conservatives to rethink their plans to privatise construction safety, after a recent blitz of sites in Greater Manchester, revealed over a quarter were unsafe.

If elected the Conservative Party have announced that construction companies deemed "low risk" would be entitled to commission a private safety audit. Once the audit had been completed, Health and Safety Executive inspectors would be entirely barred from all of a company's sites, unless there was an emergency.

-- Advertisement --

If the plans came into force, it would make it virtually impossible for the HSE to conduct sudden widespread unannounced visits, as it would be impossible to ascertain which sites were covered by a safety audit and therefore off limits and which sites were not.

George Guy, Regional Secretary for UCATT North West, said: "The fact that a quarter of construction sites were deemed unsafe in Greater Manchester, demonstrates just what a dangerous nonsense the Conservative plans are. If the Conservatives had their way, rather than being able to check that sites were safe, or close them down if they were dangerous, the HSE would be barred from setting foot on them unless an accident occurred and a worker was maimed or killed."

The HSE issued a total of 56 enforcement notices on 42 sites in the Greater Manchester area, many of the sites were considered so dangerous that work had to be stopped immediately. In total the HSE visited 163 construction sites over two days in the Manchester, Salford and Trafford area.

(CD/GK)