Contractor fined £600,000

A national facilities management company was fined £600,000, and ordered to pay costs of £15,498, for breaching Regulation 25 (4) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. The fine resulted from an incident when an employee of a subcontractor, who was replacing a traffic light pole, came into contact with a live underground cable which gave him the electric shock and set him on fire.

NB Regulation 25(4) states that “construction work which is liable to create a risk to health or safety from an underground service, or from damage to or disturbance of it, must not be carried out unless suitable and sufficient steps (including any steps required by this regulation) have been taken to prevent the risk, so far as is reasonably practicable”.