Lawford Kidd's Blog

With the number of construction site inspections in Scotland falling by 30 per cent last year, according to the Union for Workers in the Construction Sector (UCATT), the lives of construction workers in Scotland are being put at an increased risk

To explain, despite inspecting 1,248 Scottish constructions sites in 2012/13 and carrying out 1,250 inspections in 2011/12, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) only inspected 881 construction sites across Scotland last year.

Road safety organisations have expressed disappointment at the latest road traffic casualty figures published by the Department of Transport, which show that deaths and serious injuries on UK roads increased by 4% in the year ending September 2014, with deaths up by 1%.

In response to the figures, road safety charity Brake has called on all political parties to commit to three vital road safety policies, especially to protect pedestrians, cyclists, children and young people.

In total, 1,730 people were killed and 22,630 seriously injured on UK roads in the year ending September 2014, up from 1,711 deaths and 21,728 serious injuries in the previous year. Casualties of all severities are also up by 5%, from 184,087 to 192,910.

The Scottish Government has recently published details of its plans to introduce legislation that it says will create a more accessible, affordable and equitable civil justice system for Scotland.

The proposals, which the Government is now consulting on, contain primary legislation on the expenses and funding of civil litigation. In particular, the Government is seeking views on its plans to:

• Introduce a capping mechanism for speculative fee agreements;
• Allow damages based agreements to be offered to clients by solicitors in Scotland and to be capped to the same extent as speculative fee agreements;
• Introduce a system of qualified one-way costs shifting in personal injury cases;
• Introduce technical powers to enable the Scottish Civil Justice Council to implement some aspects of the Sheriff Principal Taylor’s review;
• To make provision for legal aid in relation to “funder of last resort” (which will ensure that legal aid is targeted at those who need it most) and the availability of legal aid for legal persons in certain circumstances.

It also seeks views on:

Earlier this week, TUC publically condemned the Government's proposed changes to UK health and safety legislation for those who are self-employed.

The House of Lords are to vote on such proposals, which if approved, will mean that certain self-employed persons will no longer be covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act, and therefore will not need to comply with the Act's obligations - unless they have certain occupations or work in particular sectors.

A worker has been left paralysed after falling almost four metres through a fragile roof light in Lauder.

Neil Knox, from East Lothian, was apparently a time served and experienced worker, but had no formal training in roof work. At the time of the incident, he was working to replace plastic roof lights on a farm shed. He doesn’t remember how he came to fall, but was found by a colleague lying on the floor beneath a roof light that had a large hole in it.

Mr Knox was airlifted to hospital with broken ribs, a broken sternum and punctured lungs. His spine was fractured in two places, damaging his spinal cord, which has left him confined to a wheelchair with no movement or sensation in his legs. He also has only 50% lung efficiency due to partial paralysis of his chest muscles.