HSE ‘satisfied’ with HS2 investigation into serious near-miss

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said it is satisfied with HS2’s response to the serious near-miss that led to a pause on its London tunnels work.

On 29 September last year, a beam struck a crane basket with two workers inside as a gantry crane was being disassembled at the Green Park Way vent shaft in west London.

No one was hurt, but the Skanska Costain Strabag joint venture (SCS JV) flagged the issue with HS2 and halted its work across London while a review of safety procedures was carried out.

HS2 said the review saw them investigate, learn and improve procedures.

Three weeks later, work restarted at three sites, with eight more resuming operations that week. Eight others restarted on a phased basis afterwards.

HSE was made aware of the incident and allowed SCS JV to investigate the circumstances.

An HSE spokesperson said this week: “After being presented with the findings from the investigation, we are satisfied with the actions taken.

“We will be following up with all dutyholders involved as part of our next inspection.”

Construction News understands the next inspection is likely to take place within the next few weeks.

CN revealed last month that HS2 bosses had raised worries over contractors’ health and safety performance months before the Green Park incident.

Minutes from a series of HS2 board meetings from 2025 detailed that five RIDDOR incidents took place across the line in February that year, prompting concern.

The minutes stated that the incidents, details of which were not outlined, “required improved interventions to reinforce safety standards with the JVs”.

“Immediate steps were being taken to reinstitute the safety programme and commence quarterly executive safety review meetings,” they added.

In June, the board heard there were a “consistent number” of lost-time incidents occurring and that management was considering intervention over the issue.

A target score for a project health and safety performance index had been adjusted in the period before the meeting but was proving “a stretch for the delivery partners”, the papers also stated.

An HS2 spokesperson said at the time that safety was its number one priority and described its performance as “industry leading”.

“We recognise that construction work sites are inherently dangerous places and we cannot be complacent. This is why we take a zero-tolerance approach to incidents, as was demonstrated last October, when we actively intervened to instruct a pause of tunnelling works in London to collectively investigate, learn and improve procedures following an incident.

“It is precisely because we want to better monitor health and safety trends and reduce incident rates that we use the Health and Safety Performance Index (HSPI), which includes injury frequency weighting, since it better targets measurable and specific areas where we want to drive better performance into the supply chain,” he said.