Health and safety

Health and safety

Construction sites can be dangerous places and the implementation, and proper management, of adequate and appropriate health and safety measures is vital in the construction industry to reduce the risk of accidents and illness.

Health and safety must be taken into account from the very beginning of a project, before work on site has even begun: it must be considered during the planning stages of a project, in the setting up of the construction site and, of course, during the actual construction phase. See Practice Notes: Health and safety requirements—preparing to begin works and setting up the site and Construction phase—site management and on-site health and safety requirements.

Those responsible for a project must ensure that work on site can happen safely and also that members of the public are not placed at risk. It is crucial that those involved in construction projects understand, and can identify, the main causes of accidents and ill-health in order that key hazards can be identified and the associated

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Latest Construction News

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The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) launched the UK Climate Resilience Roadmap on 26 June 2025, the first guidance of its kind to outline how the UK’s built environment—including homes, schools, offices, hospitals, parks and infrastructure—is increasingly vulnerable to five key climate hazards: overheating, flooding, drought, wildfires and storms. The roadmap identifies 13 areas across the UK most at risk from extreme weather events, noting that places such as Peterborough and Fairbourne could become ‘likely uninhabitable’ by the end of the century due to flooding. It also identifies regions particularly susceptible to storms, wildfires and drought, and outlines strategies to help adapt buildings for a warmer, wetter future. The guidance calls on the government to treat climate resilience as a national emergency and includes several policy recommendations, such as establishing an Office for Resilience within the Cabinet Office, reinstating the Minister for Resilience, protecting all communities with trees, parks and ponds, and fostering a new generation of green professionals. It also sets out a four-stage framework designed to help built environment professionals integrate climate resilience into decision-making across organisations and project teams.

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