Health and Safety

Yaasica Hamilton-Haye is a senior construction solicitor at Devonshires The use of e-scooters and e-bikes is steadily growing in the UK. It is now a common sight to see riders zipping across pavements and roads. While reducing the number of cars on the road is by no means a bad…

Will new regulations be enough to reduce the fire-safety risk posed by cavities in modular built structures? Ian Weinfass reports More than eight months have passed since fire-service bosses published a five-page document outlining a litany of concerns about modular buildings. Their warning came a year after structural safety-reporting body…

Pauline Lam, a senior associate at Russell-Cooke LLP, instructing Robert Bowker of Tanfield Chambers, acted for the leaseholders of 2-4 Leigham Court Road Kedai Ltd, the landlord of a London residential development, has been ordered by the First-tier Tribunal to carry out remediation under the Building Safety Act (BSA) 2022…

Making sure firms and workers are competent to carry out construction projects is one of the biggest post-Grenfell initiatives in the sector. CN investigates the progress to date In the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Dame Judith Hackitt’s seminal report Building a Safer Future highlighted a construction industry that…

Stefan Desbordes is an associate covering safety, health and environmental regulation at law firm DAC Beachcroft The principal designer (PD) is a key role in the project structure set out in the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015). They must plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety…

Stuart Bosley is managing director of quantum and project advisory at engineering consultancy DeSimone In a resolute move towards enhancing fire-safety measures, the government has taken significant steps in response to the lessons learned from the tragic Grenfell Tower fire. Towards the end of 2022, a proposal was published to…

Cladding contractors have a crucial role to play in remediating potentially unsafe high-rise buildings – but they are beset by a variety of problems impacting their ability to implement solutions. Keith Cooper investigates  The precise financial cost of removing unsafe cladding from residential blocks is still one of the great…

Government-commissioned report calls for overhaul of construction product testing system - but how likely is action? Evidence given to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry raised grave concerns about the process by which cladding materials used on the west London block were tested and approved. In response, in 2021, then housing secretary…

As construction professionals and legal experts digest the real-world implications of the Building Safety Act, what are the big unanswered questions? Nobody needs reminding that ongoing building safety reforms are aimed at avoiding a repeat of the dreadful events of June 2017, when 72 people died in a devastating fire…

The official system to investigate construction accidents is failing both victims and the industry Kayla Boor had just left her four-year-old son at school and was walking along the street when a pallet of bricks fell onto her from a building site crane. Two days later, the recently engaged woman…