‘Justice denied’ on deaths

Construction union UCATT is calling for urgent action to be taken to ensure that companies responsible for the death of a construction worker are brought to justice.

Between 2004-05 and 2008-09, just 154 out of 332 (46%) fatal accidents involving construction workers led to a prosecution, according the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in reply to the union’s Freedom of Information request.

The union did not request figures for more recent recording years, as it typically takes between three and four years between the death of a worker and a case coming to court.

UCATT general secretary Steve Murphy said: “These are truly shocking figures. It is bad enough that families have lost a loved one, but the fact [that] in the majority of cases no prosecution has ever been brought is shameful.”

Most construction fatalities are entirely preventable, previous research undertaken by the HSE concluded that in seven out of 10 cases management failures caused or contributed to the death.

Murphy said “we can now see in the majority of cases it is in fact justice denied”, not merely a case of justice delayed. “Families who have lost a loved one deserve answers about why there are so few prosecutions.”

The figures on the low number of prosecutions comes at a time when the HSE is facing cuts of 35% in its budget by 2015 and when the government is cutting existing safety regulations which it considers a burden on business.