Hinkley Point C contractors deny health and safety offences

Bristol magistrates yesterday hosted the first round in two separate prosecutions being brought by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) against Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke Delivery.

In both cases, the defendants pleaded not guilty to breaching safety regulations on the Hinkley Point C (HPC) construction site in Somerset. And both cases were adjourned until 30^th January at Bristol Crown Court for a pre-trial review hearing.

The first case relates to an incident on the HPC site on 13^th November 2022 in which site supervisor Jason Waring, 48, died in a construction incident after sustaining fatal injuries.

NNB Generation Company (HPC) Ltd is also facing charges for this incident alongside Bouygues and Laing O’Rourke. Bouygues and Laing O’Rourke are the joint venture partners in Bylor JV, which is delivering the main civil engineering works at HPC. NNB GenCo is the principal contractor for the ongoing nuclear construction project.

Before Bristol magistrates yesterday, NNB Genco entered a not guilty plea to failing to plan, manage and monitor the construction phase and co-ordinate matters relating to health and safety during the construction phase to ensure that work was carried out without risks to health and safety, contravening Regulation 13(1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

Bouygues Travaux Publics SAS and Laing O’Rourke Delivery Limited entered not guilty pleas to failing to plan, manage and monitor to ensure that construction work was carried out without risks to health and safety, contravening Regulation 15(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

The second case, also heard by Bristol magistrates yesterday, relates to an incident on site just a few weeks earlier, on 20^th August, 2022.  Paul Dunne, who worked for Bylor Services as a slinger, sustained serious injuries in a pre-fabrication yard when a wall of rebar mesh fell on him as he was working to remove the wall from a vertical jig to be transferred to another part of the site.

Bouygues and Laing O’Rourke both entered not guilty pleas to the same charges for this one too – failing to plan, manage and monitor to ensure that construction work was carried out without risks to health and safety, contravening Regulation 15(2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

Both cases are now adjourned and move to the Crown Court next year.

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