A construction company in Oxfordshire, England, has been fined £120,000 after a 59-year-old carpenter died following a fall from the first floor during renovation work. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain’s workplace safety regulator and the counterpart of the Dutch Labour Inspectorate, found that the work at height had not been properly planned and was inadequately supervised.
What happened?
The accident occurred on 30 August 2022 at a worksite in Nether Westcote, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, where renovation work was being carried out on a house. A 59-year-old carpenter was replacing damaged floor joists on an unsafe first floor, where large sections of flooring had been removed, leaving open gaps between the joists and missing support beams. He fell through the floor to the concrete ground floor below. He suffered severe head injuries and died in hospital the following day. The victim was a father of two.
HSE’s investigation focused on W G Carter Limited, the construction company based in Appleton, Oxfordshire, which was responsible for the project. While the carpenter was working under these conditions, other workers nearby were simultaneously removing floorboards, further increasing the risk of falling.
Findings
HSE concluded that the work at height had been inadequately planned, was not properly supervised, and that insufficient measures had been taken to prevent falls. The carpenter was required to work on a floor where sections of flooring and support beams had already been removed, without adequate fall protection.
W G Carter Limited pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, the UK legislation requiring employers to ensure that work at height is properly planned, appropriately supervised and carried out as safely as reasonably practicable. Bristol Magistrates’ Court handed down its sentence on 24 September 2026: a fine of £120,000, plus £5,247 in costs.
An HSE inspector said after the hearing that the company’s failings cost a man his life. According to the inspector, workers are killed or suffer life-changing injuries every year because work at height is not properly planned or because suitable protective measures are not in place.
Recommendations
The case illustrates what the Work at Height Regulations 2005 require of construction employers: every task at height must be properly planned in advance, there must be appropriate supervision during the work, and suitable measures must be in place to prevent falls. Among other things, the facts of this case show that floors where sections or support beams have been removed must be cordoned off or secured before anyone works on them, and that tasks affecting each other’s safety – such as removing floorboards while a colleague is working nearby on the joists – must be coordinated. Supervision on the construction site is not a formality in this respect, but a legal requirement.
Context
According to HSE figures, falls from height are the leading cause of fatal workplace accidents in Great Britain: in the 2025/26 reporting year, 31 workers died from a fall from height, around a quarter of the 126 workers killed in workplace accidents overall. In the construction sector, 25 workers died that year. HSE publishes these figures provisionally; final figures follow in July 2027. The accident in Nether Westcote occurred back in 2022; the court case was only concluded four years later.
Source: HSE press release: construction company convicted after fatal fall from height on building site, 2 October 2026
Additionally researched: HSE, Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain
