Chapter 1: Introduction

Health and safety management in construction projects has become a major consideration over the last few decades. The UK construction industry, for example, has made significant strides in this area since the publication of major reviews of the sector, such as the Egan Report (DTI, 1998) and, more recently, Construction 2025 (HMG, 2013), the UK government strategy for construction.

This chapter gives a general overview of the state of the art of health and safety management in refurbishment projects and the issues that have led to the main challenges in such projects. A brief description of the other chapters of the book and some definitions of key terms are also presented.