In brief:
- Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey UK has been fined £800,000 after a teenage apprentice was injured when a temporary stairwell covering collapsed.
- A Health and Safety Executive investigation has found the company failed to install critical safety propping, a measure detailed in its own safety manual.
- The company pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and was sentenced at North Somerset Magistrates’ Court on 3 June 2025.
In detail:
Housebuilder, Taylor Wimpey UK Limited, has been fined £800,000 after a 17-year-old apprentice suffered multiple injuries when a temporary stairwell covering collapsed on a construction site in Somerset.
Charlie Marsh, a bricklaying apprentice from Whitchurch, Bristol, was less than a year into his career when the incident occurred at the company’s Meadfields development in Weston-super-Mare, where around 450 new homes were under construction.
HSE inspector Derek Mclauchlan said: “Everyone working in construction has a responsibility to ensure people are safe.
“Any work involving structural stability is potentially high risk and proper planning and implementation should be given.”
On 22 August 2023, Marsh had been loading concrete blocks onto the first floor of one of the houses. The blocks, stacked in groups of 10 to 20, were placed near or on a timber sheet covering a stairwell opening.
The covering, made of timber sheets laid across joists, was a temporary feature intended for removal once the staircase was installed.
As the blocks were being positioned, the unsupported covering gave way. Marsh and an estimated 20kg of blocks fell more than two metres to the ground floor. He sustained injuries to his fingers, wrist, hand and shoulder.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation revealed that the joists beneath the temporary covering had not been properly back propped – a critical safety step that had been highlighted in Taylor Wimpey’s own health and safety manual.
The omission on that specific plot was found to be the cause of the collapse.
The HSE cited guidance under L153 – Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, which requires that all practicable steps be taken to prevent structural collapses.
It also referred to the duty of care under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which mandates that employers protect those not in their direct employment from health and safety risks.
Taylor Wimpey UK Limited pleaded guilty to breaching this section of the 1974 Act.
The company was fined £800,000 and ordered to pay £6,240.25 in costs and a £2,000 victim surcharge at North Somerset Magistrates’ Court on 3 June 2025.
Mclauchlan said: “This incident could have been avoided had the right steps been taken. The failures of Taylor Wimpey resulted in a young man at the very beginning of his career being injured.
“Charlie was lucky those injuries were not far more serious. Lessons should be learned.”
The prosecution was brought by HSE enforcement lawyer Samantha Tiger, with support from paralegal officer Rebecca Withell.
