Construction sites
The formal government position with regard to construction sites being open is that construction work should continue and this was reiterated once more over the weekend by Alok Sharma MP, the BEIS Secretary of State and in an open letter to the construction industry by Nadhim Zahawi MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State.
This remains the formal line of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) with the codicil that sites should operate in accordance with Public Health England instructions; without compromising health and safety; and in accordance with the Site Operating procedures issued last week by the CLC, available here.
The CLC has prepared the attached template of a letter that firms can adopt and adapt to issue to their workforces regarding travel to work, available here. Please issue this to your members if they are travelling.
The CLC is also in the final stages of developing guidance on construction work that is deemed to be essential, which will broadly follow and expand upon the list in my blog, last week. This list will be published shortly, however the official government advice is that ALL sites should still remain open providing the above conditions can be met.
The current advice to those carrying out work on site should be that they carry out their own risk assessment on each site and determine whether or not it is safe for them to continue to work in relation to Public Health England instructions and the Site Operating Procedures. If it is not possible to work in accordance with the PHE instructions or with regard to the site operation procedures then they should not work.
If sites are to be temporarily closed, the CLC has today published guidance on how sites should be closed. |