Embargoed,
6 a.m. Tuesday 27th February 2000
New figures on level of inspectors in the construction
industry
On the eve of the Government's Construction
Summit at Queen Elizabeth Conference, the CCA have published
new figures that that the Health and Safety Executive
employ only 128 safety inspectors to enforce the law
in over 500,000 construction sites in England, Scotland
and Wales.
These inspectors are
responsible for:
| • |
undertaking
inspections of companies to ensure that they are
complying with safety law |
| • |
the
investigation of over 80 deaths, 5000 major injuries,
and 10,000 over-three days injuries reported to
the Health and Safety Executive every year and |
| • |
prosecution
of those companies whom it is alleged have committedhealth
and safety offences" |
Figures exclusively obtained by the Centre for Corporate
Accountability show the numbers of inspectors "allocated"
by the HSE in different parts of Great Britain last
year were:
| London
and South East |
27 |
inspectors |
| North
West |
16.5 |
inspectors |
| Yorkshire
and North East |
18 |
inspectors |
| Midlands
|
15.5 |
inspectors |
| Home
Counties |
18 |
inspectors |
| Wales
and West |
15.5 |
inspectors |
| Scotland |
20.5 |
inspectors |
The actual figures of inspectors are likely to be even
less than these numbers.
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Notes to Editors
- In 1999/2000, the
HSE's budget was 176 million pounds. The Chancellor
gave the HSE a total extra budget of 45 million
pounds over the next three years - an average of
15 million a year
- In the year 200/2001
the Government is only giving the HSE an extra of
5 million pounds
- Between 1996 -
1998, the HSE only investigated 13.6% of those major
injuries to construction workers which were reported
to it. That is 1,184 out of 8724 injuries.
|
