The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a consultation on proposed Notification of Conventional Tower Cranes Regulations, which would require certain information about tower cranes to be registered with them.
In January this year, the HSE board agreed that a national register of tower cranes was needed to address public concern over a number of high profile incidents involving tower cranes, which have resulted in eight deaths since 2000.
The proposed regulations would require employers who use conventional tower cranes assembled on site to give certain information to the HSE, which would then be made publicly available in a national register. This information would include the name and address of the crane's owner, the address of the construction site where its installed, the crane's make and age, the thorough examination date, the name and address of the employer for whom the thorough examination was made, and whether that examination revealed any defects. A flat fee of £20 per registration is proposed.
According to the HSE, the register would improve the control and management of risks in tower crane use, provide further reassurance about the control and management of those risks to workers and others, and provide better intelligence about crane use to inform any enforcement action taken by them.
An online questionnaire asks for stakeholders' views on what types of cranes should be covered, whether the regulations should be limited to conventional tower cranes on construction sites only or also those in other locations such as stockyards, factories, what information should be included on the register, how information should be submitted and how access to the register should be managed.
Responses must be in by 9 October 2009. More information on how to respond is available on the HSE website: http://www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd221.htm?ebul=consult/jul09&cr=01
For more information, see:
