Managing Health and Safety Risks (No. 27): Confined spaces

This guide from law firm Browne Jacobson expands on an article published in the June 2013 issue, from the Institution’s Health and Safety Panel.

Transport-related accidents are the second largest cause of injury in the workplace after falls from height. Every year in the UK, around 50 people are killed and 2000 seriously injured in such incidents in and around construction sites and other workplaces. This article considers the safety issues regarding both visitors to a construction site and staff employed full time on a site.

All excavation work is potentially hazardous; the collapse of excavation faces can have serious consequences, both for life and purely as an economic loss.