John Lacey, chair of the IOSH Construction Group, said: "Hain gave a commitment at his September Construction Forum to “halting the recent surge in construction deaths” and to give construction workers the protection they deserve. We hope Purnell will follow through on this promise and do everything in his power to stop the alarming rise in construction fatalities."

Last year, 77 of the 241 workplace deaths in the UK were in the construction industry. Lacey said: "The disturbing thing is that many of these deaths are by well-known causes that have affected the industry for years – falls from height, being struck by a moving or falling object and from contact with electricity.

“Concerningly, there’s been a sharp rise in electricity deaths from three in each of the last two years, to 10 in 2006-7. IOSH wants to see more information available on the causes of these accidents. Just saying 10 people were killed by contact with electricity leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and doesn’t help employers and health and safety professionals working in the industry to ensure the lessons are learned for prevention.”

Lacey added that he also hoped Purnell would encourage greater awareness of health issues in construction, and demand practical commitment from the very top of construction companies.

He said: “As an industry as a whole, we’re losing an estimated 1.8 million working days each year due to ill-health caused or made worse by work. While that’s a big improvement on what it once was, it’s still a lot of needless suffering that hits the pocket of GB plc.

“To improve the health and safety record of this industry, it’s important that Purnell gets the commitment of those at the top of the industry. They have to show that safety and health truly does matter to them – that’s a vital way of getting the message down to site workers that health and safety isn’t something you can ignore.”