The HSE has launched a consultation on proposed new Regulations that would require certain information about tower cranes to be registered with the executive. In January this year, the HSE board agreed that a national register of tower cranes should be established. The decision came in response to a number of high-profile incidents involving tower cranes in recent years - which have resulted in eight deaths since 2000.

The proposed Notification of Conventional Tower Cranes Regulations would require employers who use conventional tower cranes (those assembled on site) to give certain information to the HSE. HSE will make arrangements for this information to be made publicly available in a national register. The consultation asks for stakeholders' views on what cranes should be covered (whether the Regulations should be limited to conventional tower cranes on construction sites only); what information should be included on the register; how information should be submitted; and how access to the register should be managed. Responses must be in by 9 October.

More information on how to respond to CD 221, Proposals for New Regulations Requiring the Notification of Tower Cranes Operating on Construction Sites, is available on the HSE website.