It seems to me that the whole question of responsibility for safety on construction sites is becoming nicely clouded by bringing in more and more individuals and companies.
Method statements, quality assurance, independent checking engineers, clients, consultants, Labour Department inspectors - where will it all end? Rules, regulations, the most detailed and thoroughly checked method statements are wonderful on paper.
Unless they are implemented on site, they are worthless. At the crunch level, there are two groups only - the contractor and the operative.
On the one hand, safety procedures cost money, for which there may not be any return; and on the other hand, many (but not all) operatives still seem to believe that it only happens to someone else, and do take unnecessary risks. I wonder what would happen if non-compliance with site safety regulations was a criminal rather than a civil offence.
J.R. KNIGHT Pokfulam
