Tim Walker, the director-general of the Health and Safety Executive, has called for a sharp increase in fines for companies who put staff at risk in the workplace by breaking safety regulations.
Walker said it was "incomprehensible" that fines for serious breaches of health and safety rules were "only a small percentage of those fines handed down for breaches of financial services rules in similarly large firms".

He added that he understood that the penalties could affect firms' wealth and financial well-being, but that "safety breaches in health and safety can and do result in loss of limbs, livelihoods and lives".

The HSE published its fourth annual report on Wednesday, detailing all offences and penalties for 2002/03.

The executive cited examples of inappropriately low fines imposed by magistrates, including an incident in which a construction company was fined 拢8500 after two employees were trapped under an unsupported excavation while laying pipework, which it described as a "potential double fatality".

No attempt was made to halt the work in progress, despite the site engineer being aware of the risk.

Taylor Woodrow received the largest fine for a single transgression, paying 拢80,000 for breaking the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act when scaffolding collapsed in high winds at a site in Cardiff in October 2000.

The average fine for offenders in the construction sector was 拢5,698 鈥� 23% less than the previous year.