PROPERTY firm Strutt & Parker, which has offices in Salisbury, is urging businesses to make sure they are up to date with health and safety rules.

The firm says health and safety is now an increasingly important issue. One of the reasons is that more businesses are taking on contractors in the belief that this will limit their liability if anything goes wrong.

This is not so, says Strutt and Parker.

Andy Levett, the firm's health and safety consultant, said: "The HSE is looking closely at how landowners, farmers and small businesses monitor contractors.

"A lot of small organisations bring in contractors, but they remain ultimately responsible for health and safety."

He said a fatal accident involving a dumper truck that ended up in a river led to the Environment Agency being fined £150,000 and having to pay full HSE costs of £19,710 earlier this year.

The driver was working on flood banks and drowned after the soil-laden truck overran the edge of the bank and overturned into the river.

The Environment Agency, which had taken on a contractor, admitted breaching health and safety laws.

Mr Levett said that even a relatively minor accident could prove costly if the correct safety precautions were not in place.

"In 2002, a Salisbury area farm worker working on top of a silage clamp fell ten feet to the ground when the clamp collapsed.

"He suffered concussion and bruising and the farmer was fined £5,000 plus HSE costs - no suitable and sufficient risk assessment had been undertaken and no safe system put in place."

He said businesses, landowners and farmers should check the competence of contractors carefully. The firm has put forward some pointers regarding their use.

Clients and contractors were not always clear about who was responsible for health and safety and this required careful planning.

Both parties had legal responsibilities under health and safety law.

Contractors, said the firm, were a significant factor in national accident statistics. They were often unaware of the hazards that employers would take for granted, as they lacked detailed knowledge of the workplace.

Mr Levett said: "We advise businesses to identify the job and be clear about exactly what the contractors will be required to do, select a contractor with sufficient skills and knowledge to do the job, assess the risks of the work and discuss them with the contractors and, if applicable, sub-contractors.

"The business should provide information, instruction and training on anything that may affect health and safety, monitor and supervise what is going on once work has started and make periodic checks on the contractors' performance," he said.