Story Contracting has been served two prohibition notices by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for breaching working-from-height and excavation-safety regulations.
According to the first enforcement notice published by the HSE, the contractor “failed to take suitable and sufficient measures” to prevent falls from height that could have caused injury.
In the second, the watchdog said the firm had not taken “all practicable steps” to prevent danger to a person by providing “support, battering or stepping” to an excavation.
The two notices published said Story Contracting was in breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and section 22 (1) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations.
Both incidents took place at the Burgh Road Industrial Estate in Carlisle, according to the HSE. Story Contracting’s website lists that address as its headquarters.
The notices were issued on 19 May but have only just been published online by the HSE.
Falling from height is the most common cause of fatal workplace injury across all UK industries, accounting for 31 deaths. This represented about a quarter of all worker deaths in 2025/26, according to the HSE. Of those, 11 were in the construction sector.
Construction has for a long time been the deadliest of all UK industries. In 2025/26, it recorded 25 workplace deaths, the highest of any sector.
Analysis by Construction News earlier this year found that the number of immediate prohibition and improvement notices issued by the HSE has halved compared with four years ago.
Over the past five years, the HSE has issued more than 8,000 enforcement notices to firms in the sector, the data shows.
But 2025 marked a five-year low with just 573 immediate prohibitions and 568 improvement notices.
The notices, which are published on the HSE website, covered a range of unsafe practices, from concerns over lack of protections in place to prevent falls from height, to the presence of asbestos.
A total of 1,141 notices were issued last year, compared with 1,315 in 2024, 1,892 in 2023, 2,368 in 2022 and 1,297 in 2021 during the Covid pandemic.
