Tower crane register falls victim to safety review

The Notification of Tower Cranes Regulations is just one of the many health and safety initiatives that have fallen foul of the government’s Löfstedt Review into health and safety legislation, which announced its findings in November.

The Department for Work and Pensions has accepted the review’s findings amidst a storm of protest from safety groups and construction union UCATT, who believe that scrapping the tower crane register will endanger the lives of construction workers on site.

George Guy from UCATT was quoted in November saying: “Rather than scrapping the register, it should be extended to include all industries and all forms of cranes” (source: Construction Enquirer). However, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is in favour of “simplifying and streamlining” health and safety regulations and empowering employers to make “sensible and proportionate decisions” about risks in the workplace.

The regulations oblige firms to notify the HSE whenever a tower crane is brought on site and to confirm that it has been properly tested for safe use. The register has only been in force for just over 18 months and was introduced in an attempt to improve the construction industry’s record of fatalities resulting from tower crane accidents – the most recent of which occurred last autumn.

Tony O’Brien, secretary of the Construction Safety Campaign, declared himself “appalled” at the government’s plans.

For more information, go to www.hse.gov.uk