This year sees responsibility for running and developing the annual UK Ladder Exchange (LE) transfer from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to the Ladder Association.

The scheme, set up in 2007, is designed to encourage companies to replace broken, damaged or bent ladders and trade them in for safe new ones.

During February and March 2012 HSE Construction inspectors will be carrying out an intensive inspection initiative. These inspections will focus on the refurbishment/building site risks that make construction one of Britain’s most dangerous industries – working at height safely, good order on site, and the risks associated with the removal of asbestos.

Falls from height remains one of the most common causes of fatalities and major injuries in the construction industry, with more than five incidents every day.

AN EVESHAM horticultural nursery has been fined thousands of pounds after a worker fell through a glasshouse roof and suffered serious injuries.

Westland Nurseries Limited based in Offenham were fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £6,835 costs after pleading guilty to breaching Health and Safety laws following the incident in December 2009.

A young worker was lucky to escape serious injury when he fell seven metres through a skylight on a warehouse roof.

The 23-year-old man was helping to replace signage at the premises of Remnant Kings, a curtains and fabrics retailer in Seafield Way, Edinburgh, on 6 October 2009. An employee of Forrest Hepburn and McDonald Signs Ltd, the man was working with two colleagues to remove three signs.

A construction firm and its company secretary have been fined after construction workers were put a risk during the refurbishment of its offices in Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive visited the premises of Haz International in Great North Road, Hatfield in September 2009 and again in July 2010 after receiving complaints about unsafe working at height.

A ROOFER has been prosecuted after he and two employees were spotted on a shop roof without any protection to stop them falling.

Ross Singleton, who trades as Ross’s Roofing, was photographed by an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive as he and the two other workers carried out repairs to the roof of a hairdressers’ in Skipton Road, Colne.

Burnley Magistrates’ Court heard the inspector immediately issued a Prohibition Notice ordering them to come down from the roof but, despite initially stopping work, they later returned to the roof without any safety measures in place.

The scaffolding industry is calling for work at height regulations to be tightened much in the way they are in the gas fitting industry.

The National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) issued the call in its response to the Lofstedt report, the government-commissioned review of the UK's health and safety legislation.

The Work at Height Regulations are due to be reviewed by 2013.

A man was taken to hospital by air ambulance after falling 20ft from a ladder as he was putting Christmas lights up outside his home.

Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance (DLRAA) crews were called to the scene to assist East Midlands ambulance service after the man in his 30s fell from a ladder.

A waste management company has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), after an employee fell from the roof of a truck in an accident at work.

Blackburn Magistrates’ Court was told that a forty four year old employee, who has not been named, was working for Neales Waste Management Ltd, and was assisting to empty a skip at the Walker Industrial Park in Guide, Blackburn.