Serious accidents caused by poor safety fencing and demarcation happen almost every year in the UK.

In recent years, there have been several high-profile cases of health and safety breaches in the construction industry, resulting in significant fines and penalties.

This repository page aims to provide a comprehensive list of well-known health and safety fines and breaches in the construction industry for poor safety fencing and demarcation listed in the media in the UK. The page will be updated regularly to ensure that it remains up to date with the latest information.

List of Fines and Breaches

Amro Construction – August 2023 – Fine: £21,277 – failing to discharge its health and safety duties – fire risks, no water, and inadequate security fencing.

R.J. McLeod (Contractors) Limited – April 2023 – Fine: £800,000 – safety breaches after a 10-year-old boy died after falling down a manhole on a building site in Glasgow. Ten-year-old Shea Ryan went out to play with his friends on the evening of 16th July 2020 and got onto the construction site where he was able to enter a manhole within which, he fell.  Emergency services and local residents raced to the scene and rescued Shea from the manhole but tragically he died from his injuries.

Howard Civil Engineering – August 2022 – Fine: £600,000 – safety breaches after a seven-year-old child became trapped and suffocated on a construction site. Seven-year-old Conley Thompson went missing from home on the morning of 26 July 2015 and was found the next morning by workers at the construction site at Bank End Road, Worsborough, in South Yorkshire. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that Conley had become trapped in a drainage pipe, which had been fixed into the ground in preparation for the installation of fencing posts. Tragically, he had suffocated before being found the next morning when work restarted on site.

Unknown company based in Glasgow – September 2020 – Fine: £110,000 – after an elderly man died following injuries sustained on a Kirkcaldy construction site. The injuries resulted as a consequence of there being insufficient fencing around the site. The Kirkcaldy Sheriff’s Court learned that the 83-year old gentleman, who was suffering from a number of age-related illnesses, fell into a flooded excavation and drowned when he was able to gain access to the new housing development site during a period of holiday closure in early January 2015.

Toft Construction – March 2018 – Fine: £20,000 – No fencing was erected to prevent members of the public falling into the excavation. contractors were extremely lacking in a number of areas, from basic hygiene to safe operations. An unsupported, deep excavation at the front of the property, which put the public at risk of injury was discovered.

Unknown construction company – September 2017 – Fine: £5,280 – chauffeur fell to his death at a concealed basement void in a domestic property undergoing construction work. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company had failed to put in place adequate construction site fencing and the site had no warning signs and used ineffective barriers around the concealed void.

Thomas Vale Construction – March 2014 – Fine: £20,000 – a woman suffered brain damage when she was hit by fencing that collapsed in a gust of wind in 2012.