Construction union UCATT fear for the safety of workers after it emerged that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are considering cutting unannounced safety inspections by a third.

The plans were contained in a leaked letter, obtained by the BBC's File on Four programme and are part of the HSE's response to the Government's decision to cut their funding by at least 35%.

Alan Ritchie, General Secretary of UCATT, said: "These cuts will kill. In construction large numbers of employers simply ignore safety laws. The only thing which compels them to keep workers safe is the fear of a knock on the door from the HSE. If you remove that deterrent deaths will increase."

The high level of flouting of safety laws in construction was recently revealed following a blitz of construction sites in Merseyside in February 2011, which found 1 in 4 of the sites, visited to be unsafe. Similar intensive inspections in other parts of the country have in the past found safety failings on 80% of the sites visited.

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It is understood that Geoffrey Podger the Chief Executive of the HSE, is proposing that face to face contact by inspectors is replaced by web based initiatives.

Mr Ritchie, added: "The softly, softly approach has been proven to be a failure. If companies don’t care about safety, then a glossy leaflet or a flashy website is not going to change their mind. Particularly if they know that it will not be followed up by inspections and a prosecution."

The failure of the advice and guidance approach to health and safety was exemplified by the failure of companies to adopt voluntary directors' duties for health and safety, which had been heavily promoted by the HSE and the Institute of Directors. The HSE's own research found that just 19% of company directors had claimed to have read the guidance, let alone implemented it.

Mr Ritchie, further added: "While this leaked letter will focus much of the attention on the HSE, we must remember that the real villains are the Government. Cutting the HSE's budget by over a third shows that they have never worked in a dangerous workplace and simply don’t care about workers safety."

(CD/GK)