Government calls for better construction site health and safety

John Prescott has demanded that the construction industry drastically improves its health and safety record by signing up to government targets, speaking at the HSC's Construction Safety Summit Conference.

The targets require the construction industry over the next four years to cut fatalities and serious injuries by 40 per cent (10 per cent each year) and ill-health by 20 per cent. John Prescott said that this would prevent 3,000 deaths a year.

Last year, two construction workers on average were killed each week in work-related incidents. According to construction website CNPlus, fatal injuries among building workers rose from 65 in the year ended March 1999 to 78 last year. In the first nine months of the current year, ending in March, they rose to 85. The main cause of death was falls from height.
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