Revealed: Construction’s biggest H&S fines – as new stats show rise in fatalities

New analysis of fines under new penalties regime.

Balfour Beatty has received £3.5m in health and safety fines since February – nearly half of all fines in the sector, according to new analysis by leading legal firm BLM.

Construction companies as a whole have been hit with almost £8m in health & safety fines since new penalties came into force at the start of the year in which fines are proportional to turnover. BLM has been monitoring sentences issued by the UK courts, and found that out of 101 health and safety fines issued, 38% affected those in the construction sector.

The three highest fines alone totalled £5.6m, all of which involved fatalities of either staff or customers. Directors of two construction companies were also given custodial sentences. One was given six years after being found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter, the other was sentenced to six months after one of his employees was killed on site.

The analysis comes as new figures from the HSE showed a sharp increase in deaths on construction sites. The number of deaths in construction increased to 43 during the year from April 2015-16 compared to 35 previously. The death rate dropped slightly to 1.94 per 100,000 workers, compared to a five-year average of 2.04.

Provisional statistics from the Health and Safety Executive reveal construction fatalities remained at the five-year average. The HSE statistics show 144 people were killed at work across all industries.

Among the companies that have been fined are Balfour Beatty, Travis Perkins and Falcon Cranes. Balfour Beatty took the biggest hit, being fined a total of £3.6m for two incidents where workers were killed, while Travis Perkins was fined £2m for an incident where a customer died after being crushed by company vehicle in company’s yard.

Falcon Cranes was fined £750,000 plus costs when an employee died after falling from a crane as it collapsed and a member of the public was also killed.

The legal costs involved were also found to be substantial for all cases, with the biggest three fines resulting in almost £185,000 in prosecution costs for the companies involved. Altogether, the prosecution costs associated with fines to UK construction companies since February have reached over £530,000.

Helen Devery, partner and head of SHE practice at BLM, said: “These new guidelines have been a real game changer. Fines are now proportional to the size of the company, meaning that both small and large businesses will feel the same impact.

“It is expected that fines will remain high for larger firms that are charged with serious offences so businesses need to work harder than ever to avoid incidents and the subsequent negative impact on their people, productivity and profits.”

Image: Katarzyna Bialasiewicz/Dreamstime.com

BLM H&S sentencing tracker June 2016