Health and safety laws must always be followed; failure to do so could endanger both members of the public and your own employees. A good training company can provide the right training to ensure regulations are followed and they have the right skills to cope in an emergency situation. Basic life support, for instance, should always be taught to at least one member of staff so they can perform CPR, for instance, if necessary.

A Staffordshire property developer, scaffolding company and its company director, and a roofer were recently taken to court by the Health and Safety Executive after failing to comply with the relevant health and safety regulations. The roofer, Philip Lonergan, who worked on the site fell to his death after falling through a 50cm gap. There was not enough protection put in place to prevent roofers having accidents e.g. additional handrails, netting etc.

Lindsay Hope, from the Health and Safety Executive, said: “Each defendant failed to ensure Mr Lonergan and other roofers could work safely. In each case their failure was a significant cause of Mr Lonergan’s death.”

She went on to say: “The temporary edge protection should have had a third guardrail to reduce the space for a person to slide through. It should also have had netting around the edge, or toe boards. No such safety measures were in place.”