Despite a huge national Height Aware campaign by UK health and safety enforcement authorities to promote safer working at height, it appears that for some the message has either not reached them or is being ignored.
HSE construction inspectors last week visited 19 sites in Grimsby and Cleethorpes where they instructed work to be stopped on 17 occasions, because people were at risk of falling and sustaining serious, if not fatal, injuries.
Problems centred on working at height - the use of incomplete scaffolding; a failure to provide scaffolding at all when required; and employees at risk of falling through fragile material such as roof lights and suspended ceilings.
The visits focussed on the smaller contractor, on refurbishment and maintenance work on less complex projects such as schools, small industrial units and domestic properties.

Comment:
"I am both disappointed and disturbed at the amount of work inspectors had to stop because there was a clear risk to people's safety.
Falls from height continue to be the most common cause of injuries to people at work with, across the whole country, 53 deaths and almost 3,800 serious injuries occurring in 2004/05 alone. It is essential that all work at height is properly planned to ensure that the correct equipment is selected and used, and that the people required to carry out the work are trained and competent to do so.
In light of the poor standards observed during these visits we will continue to target contractors of this type when inspecting in the area.
This local inspection initiative runs alongside HSE's national Height Aware Campaign which is maintaining an impact throughout June. However we propose to continue with this type of saturation inspection of construction sites during the rest of the year in selected parts of South Yorkshire, the Humber region, and North and North East Lincs." - HSE Inspector involved in the inspections.