title: "A builders merchant just got fined £2.2 million. Here's what every UK construction business needs to know." slug: huws-gray-hse-fine-construction-2026 date: 2026-03-29 description: "Huws Gray was fined £2.2 million after a worker was crushed by a 3-tonne pallet. The damning detail: the dangerous practices were already on CCTV. Here's what construction SMBs must do now." tags: [HSE, construction, health and safety, machinery safety, fines] sector: construction

A builders merchant just got fined £2.2 million. Here's what every UK construction business needs to know.

On 26 March 2026, Huws Gray Limited — one of the UK's largest builders merchants, headquartered in Llangefni, Anglesey — was fined £2.2 million plus £9,929 in costs at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.

Worker Paul Coulson was crushed by a 3-tonne pallet. A colleague started a conveyor without knowing he was inside.

That's the headline. But the detail buried in the HSE press release is what every construction and trades business in the UK needs to read carefully.

The part that should make every employer uncomfortable

The unsafe working practices that led to Paul Coulson's death had already been captured on CCTV — before the incident occurred.

The footage existed. The risk existed. And nothing was done.

In the HSE's words, Huws Gray "failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees." The prosecution centred not just on the incident itself, but on the company's failure to act on documented evidence that a dangerous situation existed.

This matters for every business in your sector, because it reframes the central question from "did we have an accident?" to "do we have documentation of risks we haven't addressed?"

Why this fine is different

£2.2 million is significant — widely regarded as one of the largest HSE construction-related fines in recent memory. But the mechanism behind it matters more than the number.

Under the Sentencing Council's guidelines for health and safety offences, courts assess:

• The culpability of the defendant (was this deliberate, reckless, or negligent?)
• The harm caused or risked
• The size and turnover of the business

The CCTV factor pushed Huws Gray into higher culpability territory. The court's message was explicit: ignoring documented evidence of a risk is not negligence — it's something closer to recklessness. That distinction drives fines upward dramatically.

For context: An SME (5–50 staff) found guilty of a fatal machinery incident would typically face fines in the £20,000–£200,000 range. A mid-size business (like Huws Gray) faces fines 10x higher. The principle scales.

Your CCTV footage can be used against you

If your site has CCTV and an incident occurs, investigators will request that footage. If it shows prior unsafe behaviour — or prior incidents that weren't addressed — that becomes evidence of systemic failure, not a one-off.

Most construction and trades businesses have CCTV primarily for security. Few have a formal process for using it as a safety management tool: reviewing footage systematically, logging near-misses, and documenting the corrective actions taken.

After the Huws Gray case, the question isn't "do we have cameras?" — it's "what are we doing with what they show us?"

Machinery safety: the most common HSE prosecution category in construction

HSE enforcement data for Q4 2025 shows machinery-related incidents as the second most common prosecution category in construction, after working at height. The specific risks:

• Conveyor systems — inadequate isolation procedures, unexpected start-up
• Forklift and pallet operations — insufficient exclusion zones, poor communication protocols
• Vehicles and plant on site — pedestrian separation failures

The Huws Gray incident involved a conveyor that could be activated remotely, with no way for the operator to verify whether the working area was clear. This is a specific, addressable risk — and the address for it is documented in the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER).

What PUWER actually requires

Most construction employers know PUWER exists. Fewer have checked their compliance against its requirements recently. The regulation requires:

1. Suitable equipment — work equipment must be appropriate for the task and conditions of use
2. Maintenance — equipment must be kept in a safe condition and inspection records maintained
3. Information and instruction — operators must have documented, specific training for each piece of equipment
4. Dangerous parts — guards and safety devices must be installed and functional
5. Isolation — effective means to isolate equipment from energy sources must exist (lockout/tagout procedures)

For conveyor systems specifically: HSE guidance is clear that start-up procedures must include a positive confirmation that the working area is clear — not an assumption.

The pattern HSE is targeting in 2026

HSE's enforcement strategy for 2026 has explicitly focused on repeat failures — businesses that have received improvement notices, been subject to prior visits, or have documented risk assessments that haven't resulted in action.

The reason is straightforward: HSE has finite inspection capacity. Targeting businesses that already know about risks and haven't fixed them achieves the highest impact per enforcement action.

If your business has received any HSE correspondence in the last 36 months, or has outstanding items from a previous risk assessment, those are your highest-priority actions before summer 2026.

The five questions to ask after Huws Gray

1. Do you have documented safe systems of work for every piece of machinery your staff operate? Not just manufacturer manuals. Written procedures specific to how your team uses that equipment, in your environment.

2. Are isolation/lockout procedures part of your standard operating procedures? Can any employee stop a machine being started while someone is working on or near it?

3. What does your CCTV footage tell you about day-to-day behaviour? Not as a surveillance exercise — as a safety management input. Do people short-cut the safe system of work when they're busy?

4. When did you last review your PUWER assessment? Not when you wrote it. When did you last review it against current operations, staffing, and equipment?

5. Do you have a documented near-miss reporting system? A near-miss that's reported and acted on is infinitely better than an incident that isn't. HSE looks for evidence of a functioning safety culture, not just paperwork.

The cost calculation

The Huws Gray fine was £2.2 million. For an SME builder or contractor, the economics work differently but the principle is identical.

A sole-trader builder found guilty of a fatal PUWER breach faces:

• Personal liability (the company structure doesn't protect you)
• Criminal conviction on record
• Loss of insurance
• Potential CSCS card revocation
• Reputational damage that ends the business

The cost of a PUWER compliance review by a competent H&S consultant: £500–£2,000.

The cost of not doing it: potentially everything.

What ComplianceAlert monitors for construction businesses

ComplianceAlert tracks HSE enforcement data, press releases, and regulatory updates daily. When HSE publishes a new enforcement bulletin, changes a code of practice, or begins a sector-specific campaign (as it did with work at height enforcement in Q1 2026), we send you a plain-English summary of what's changed and what you need to do.

For construction businesses, we cover:

• HSE enforcement and prosecution data (sector-specific patterns)
• HMRC CIS changes (April 6 — see our separate guide)
• CITB levy and training compliance
• Environment Agency waste carrier regulations
• HMRC MTD ITSA for sole trader builders

The Huws Gray fine happened on 26 March. Our construction subscribers received a summary on 27 March. The industry press covered it 2–3 days later.

That gap matters.

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