Safety, statutory and contractual obligations

Safety of temporary works is paramount to protect not only site workers but also the public and others who may be affected by the work. Temporary works should be ‘engineered’ and given the same degree of care and consideration as the permanent works. It is also important that temporary works are designed to be robust enough to withstand the rigours of site use and detailed to ensure that local or single-component failure does not lead to progressive collapse. Knowledge gained from past collapses or incidents and research has informed current temporary works guidance and standards. BS 5975:2019 (BSI, 2019) is an industry consensus view on good practice, and provides recommendations for procedures for the design, construction, use and dismantling of all types of temporary works. Statutory legislation has a direct effect on the design and operation of temporary works, imposing duties and obligations on many of the parties involved. In addition, all users of temporary works will have contractual obligations under which they work, often imposing specific requirements for the works.