Inspectors visited construction sites around the region

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited the construction sites across the eastern region - which includes Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Norfolk.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said that action was needed at a quarter of the sites "with 19 contractors receiving prohibition notices which stopped some part of their work".

She added: "Improvement notices were issued to 12 contractors giving a specified time to resolve the problem or problems identified."

Falls from height all too often result in the death or major injury of people working in construction in our region Philip Poynter, HSE principal inspector for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire

Sandy Carmichael, HSE principal inspector for Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, said: "We were disappointed to find some sites where poor standards of safety were putting employees at real risk.

"For instance, work was stopped where there was a complete absence of edge protection for work on a flat roof and where stonemasons were working from a totally inadequate scaffold platform."

But he added: "We were encouraged to see that many businesses were meeting or exceeding the minimum standards for protecting people working at height."

Concerns over scaffolding

Philip Poynter, HSE principal inspector for Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, said: "Falls from height all too often result in the death or major injury of people working in construction in our region.

"We found that where scaffolding was erected by specialists this had been carried out to an acceptable standard.

"However, several contractors failed to identify fall risks arising after scaffolding had been erected, in particular internal falls into a building."

Falls from height remain the single biggest cause of death, disability and injury in construction in the UK, accounting for 37 deaths and 1344 major injuries of workers in 2001.