by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Health and safety inspectors are swooping on construction sites in a bid to combat the death and injury toll in one of Britain's most dangerous industries.

Sites across Kent and Medway are being visited unannounced over the next few weeks as part of a crackdown on lax management

In the past year, there were 238 injuries in the county, while seven workers died working in construction across the South East.

All these occurred during refurbishment, repair and maintenance activities which will be the main focus of the latest inspections by the Health and Safety Executive.

The visits started yesterday, with regional inspectors checking that sites are managing work at height safely and are in good order.

Asbestos is a key concern, even though it was banned as a building material some years ago.

HSE officials will be checking that the risk is properly managed and ensuring that surveys have been carried out before any refurbishment work

HSE principal inspector Russell Adfield said: "This will be the fifth year that we have run the inspection initiative across Kent.

"We anticipate that that there will be examples of both good and bad practice - those where employers are taking all the measures they can to protect their workers and those where safety is way down the list of priorities.

"A lax attitude to health and safety in one of the more dangerous industries is not acceptable, especially when many of the incidents are completely avoidable by taking common sense actions and precautions.

"As we've demonstrated in previous years, we will not hesitate to take action if we find poor practice that is putting the lives of workers at risk."

On asbestos, Mr Adfield added: "Many workers believe that, because asbestos has been banned as a building material, it's no longer a threat to them.

"But that simply isn't true. Any premises built or refurbished before 2000 could contain asbestos."