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COVID-19: CLC publishes third version of construction site operating procedures
Practical Law UK Legal Update w-025-0068 (Approx. 3 pages)
COVID-19: CLC publishes third version of construction site operating procedures
| Published on 15 Apr 2020 • England |
The Construction Leadership Council has published the third version of its site operating procedures.
The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has published the third version of its Site Operating Procedures (SOP).
The second version was published on 2 April 2020, but hastily withdrawn after negative feedback on its recommendation that work should not be carried out unless workers could distance themselves from each other by two metres (see Legal update, COVID-19: CLC withdraws updated construction site operating procedures).
Like the first version, the third version does not state that a site should close if the two-metre rule cannot be observed. However, it provides additional guidance by setting out a "hierarchy of controls" that can be used to assess and reduce the risk associated with an activity where maintaining a two-metre distance is not possible.
The third version also:
- States that face masks should not be used for COVID-19 protection on sites where social distancing guidelines are met and describes them as the "last resort" in its hierarchy of controls.
- Confirms that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the relevant enforcing authority for the Public Health England (PHE) guidelines on which the SOP is based.
The government has encouraged the construction industry to comply with the SOP, with employers and contractors consulting them when deciding whether to close their sites.