A head contractor who engages an independent subcontractor to perform a single trade task (here, cladding) without any need to coordinate multiple trades does not owe a common law duty of care to ensure the subcontractor's safety, and is not bound by Regulation 73 of the Construction Safety Regulations where the totality of the relevant task has been delegated to the subcontractor. An experienced subcontractor's failure to take simple, obvious safety precautions (tying a ladder) may defeat causation entirely, not merely constitute contributory negligence. The dissent raises the question whether a labour-only subcontract, where the head contractor retains responsibility for providing scaffolding, prevents full delegation of statutory safety obligations.
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