UK health and safety law is built on the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, backed up by the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, known as CDM 2015. These laws set out who is responsible for what on a construction site, and they apply to everyone from the client to the labourer.
RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. Employers (not individual workers) must report to the HSE:
A common mistake is thinking any minor cut needs a RIDDOR report - it does not. Minor injuries just go in the site accident book, which every site must have.
A near miss is an event that could have caused harm but did not. You must always report near misses to your supervisor - they are free lessons that prevent future accidents. Never ignore one because 'nothing happened'.
Every worker must attend an induction before starting work on a new site, no matter how experienced they are. It covers emergency procedures, fire points, first aid location, welfare facilities, site rules, permit-to-work systems, and who to report hazards to. Skipping induction, even for a 'quick job', is a common and serious mistake - inductions exist because every site has different risks and layouts.
Any worker has the right, and the duty, to stop work and report immediately if they believe there is a serious and imminent danger. You will not be penalised for this - it is called your 'right to stop work'.
Working at height means any work where a person could fall and injure themselves - this includes working on ladders, scaffolds, roofs, mobile towers, near fragile surfaces, near excavations, or even at ground level next to a hole or opening. It is not just about being high up - falling from any level that could cause injury counts.
The Work at Height Regulations set out a clear hierarchy that every site must follow:
Where there is a risk of falling, edge protection is needed. The standard is a top guardrail at a minimum of 950mm above the edge, plus a mid-rail so there is no unprotected gap bigger than 470mm, plus a toe board to stop tools and materials falling. Never remove guardrails without putting a barrier or warning system in place, and always put them straight back.
Ladders should only be used for light, short-duration work - generally no more than 30 minutes at a time. Always maintain three points of contact. A leaning ladder should be angled at 75 degrees, which is often remembered as the 1 in 4 rule - one unit out for every four units up. Ladders must be secured (tied, footed, or fitted with an effective stability device) and inspected before use.
Roof lights, old asbestos sheets, and corroded roof panels can look solid but will not take a person's weight. Never step directly on a fragile surface - always use crawling boards, staging, or edge protection, and warning signs must be displayed where fragile roofs exist.
Work at height should stop or be reviewed in strong winds, ice, or heavy rain, as these dramatically increase fall risk. All access equipment - scaffolds, towers, harnesses, ladders - must be inspected regularly by a competent person, and scaffolds need a tag system showing the last inspection date.
Manual handling injuries (bad backs, strains, hernias) are one of the biggest causes of lost time in construction. The law that covers this is the Manual Handling Operations Regulations. The golden rule: avoid manual handling if you can, assess the risk if you cannot avoid it, and reduce the risk as far as reasonably practicable.
When judging if a lift is safe, remember TILE:
If a load needs two or more people, one person should call clear instructions so lifts and lowers are coordinated. Always use lifting aids (trolleys, hoists, sack barrows) where provided rather than relying on brute strength.
Hazardous substances include dust, fumes, gases, vapours, liquids and mists that can harm your health if you breathe them in, swallow them, or get them on your skin. On site this covers cement, silica dust, wood dust, solvents, isocyanates in some paints and foams, cleaning chemicals, and asbestos.
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) is the law covering hazardous substances at work. Every substance that could harm health should have a COSHH assessment before work starts. Always check the safety data sheet (SDS) and the site COSHH assessment before you use or disturb a product you are not familiar with.
Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) comes from cutting, drilling, grinding or sanding materials like concrete, brick, mortar and stone. It causes silicosis and lung cancer and you cannot see the dangerous fine particles in the air. Control it with water suppression, on-tool extraction (LEV), and RPE where exposure cannot be controlled another way.
Hardwood dust is a known cause of nasal cancer. Softwood and hardwood dust both cause asthma and other lung disease over time. Extraction and RPE apply just as they do for silica.
Under COSHH you must work through control measures in order: eliminate the substance, substitute it for something safer, use engineering controls such as extraction, then use safe systems of work, and only rely on PPE/RPE as the last resort. Never treat a dust mask as the first answer - fix the source first.
Asbestos was banned from use in the UK in 1999 but is still present in many buildings built or refurbished before 2000. It causes mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis, often decades after exposure - there is no safe level of exposure. The three main types referred to by colour are blue (crocidolite), brown (amosin) and white (chrysotile); blue and brown are the most dangerous.
Stop work immediately, do not disturb the material, isolate the area, and report it to your supervisor. Never sweep, drill, cut, sand or vacuum a suspected asbestos material with an ordinary vacuum - this releases fibres into the air. Wait for a licensed surveyor or removal contractor.
People confuse COSHH (the general law on hazardous substances) with the specific Control of Asbestos Regulations. Others assume dust masks are always adequate protection - they are not for fine silica dust, which needs proper RPE fit-tested to the individual. Remember: if in doubt about any material, stop and ask - never guess.
Site transport kills and maims more than almost any other hazard on site. The test wants you to know who is in charge, what the rules are, and what the common failures look like.
Every site with vehicle movements needs a traffic management plan. It should keep pedestrians and vehicles apart wherever possible - separate routes, barriers, and clearly marked walkways. Where separation is not possible, use crossing points, signage and banksmen. One-way systems reduce reversing, which is one of the biggest killers on site.
Reversing is one of the most dangerous vehicle movements. Vehicles should be banked back by a trained banksman using clear, agreed signals. The banksman must stay in the driver's full view at all times - if you lose sight of each other, stop. Never walk behind a reversing vehicle, even briefly, and never assume the driver has seen you; catch their eye or wait for a signal.
Moving plant such as excavators, dumpers and cranes must have an exclusion zone around it. Only trained, authorised operators and banksmen should be inside that zone. Never walk under a suspended load or within the swing radius of a slewing excavator.
Only trained and certificated operators (for example CPCS or NPORS card holders) may drive or operate plant. If you are not trained on it, do not touch it, even to move it a short distance.
Seatbelts must be worn in any plant fitted with them, including dumpers - dumper rollovers are a major cause of death because drivers are thrown out or crushed. High-visibility clothing must be worn wherever vehicles operate, so drivers can see you against the background.
Operators must carry out daily pre-use checks (brakes, lights, mirrors, tyres, warning devices) before using any vehicle or plant. Report defects immediately and do not use defective equipment - take it out of use and tag it.
Remember: pedestrians and vehicles should be kept apart by segregation first, and by procedure (banksmen, signals, exclusion zones) only where segregation is not possible.
Fire needs three things: fuel, oxygen and heat (the fire triangle). Remove any one and the fire goes out.
Extinguishers are colour-coded so you grab the right one fast.
Noise damage is permanent and painless until it is too late - you will not feel it happening.
Vibration causes Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) - tingling, numbness and eventually permanent damage to hands and fingers ('vibration white finger').
PPE is the last line of defence, used after other controls have reduced the risk as far as possible.