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Scaffolding safety has improved

29th June 2017

NASC (National Access & Scaffolding Confederation) has recently published its annual safety report and it confirms that the industry has built on the solid safety performance of previous years. The report, which analyses accident and injury statistics for 2016, covers all of its 17,000 members and is compiled from annual accident forms which its full contracting members must complete each year.

For the fourth year running, NASC has reported a fatality free year. This is particularly encouraging when considering the fact that during this period, the number of operatives working for NASC-member businesses has risen by around 14%. The report also showed a 16% decrease in the frequency of manual handling injuries amongst its members.  In other good news, no members of the public were injured by work involving NASC-member companies.

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Scaffolding safety report

The comprehensive, 24 page report covers a detailed analysis of accidents and their causes as comparison of statistics with HSE and information on what NASC does to support safe scaffolding practice.

A full version of the report can be viewed and downloaded here.  

The report shows consistent progress in the scaffolding sector in the UK and overall the news is extremely positive. However, there is always room for improvement and slips, trips and falls were again a significant cause of injuries and represent a third of all of those reported.  This is an area where more progress can certainly be made.

At Simian we welcome the report and its positive findings but would urge scaffolding companies to continue to invest in scaffolding health and safety training and consultancy in order to maintain and further improve standards within the industry.