A new All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has been established on Working at Height and its first official inquiry will look at the number of people seriously injured or killed after falling from height or being hit by falling objects at work.
The APPG is being sponsored by the Prefabricated Access Suppliers' & Manufacturers' Association (PASMA), which has highlighted that 18% of workplace fatalities in 2016/17 were the result of falls from height. It has called for urgent action in a number of key areas to address this, including:
- better data gathering on falls from height,
- more thorough investigations, and
- greater awareness of the dangers inherent in working at height.
“That 18% of people killed at work did so as a result of a fall from height is a shocking statistic,” commented Alison Thewliss, Chair of the APPG for Working at Height. “The APPG for Working at Height has brought together concerned MPs from several parties to investigate the reasons for falls from height and ensure current regulations are sufficient for protecting workers at height in the UK.”
“Although the number of overall workplace deaths has decreased since 2015, nearly one in five of those who lost their lives last year died because of a fall from height,” added Peter Bennett, Managing Director of PASMA.
“The Access Industry forum and PASMA are glad to support the work of this new APPG, which aims to shine a light on the reasons for falls from height in the workplace,” he said. “We look forward to seeing its recommendations to the Health and Safety Executive on how the number of people and families affected by falls from height can be further reduced.”
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