The Health and Safety Executive’s crackdown on engineered stone has moved silica dust from a specialist health and safety issue into a clear employers’ liability concern for fabricators, installers, main contractors and refurbishment businesses.
In May 2026, HSE published its first COSHH guidance sheet specifically for engineered stone. It states that dry cutting is unacceptable unless a business can demonstrate an equally effective or better control, and confirms that water suppression is the expected method for meeting the legal requirement. HSE has also announced more than 1,000 inspection visits to fabricators across Great Britain over a 12-month period.
This is not a new law or a formal prohibition in itself, but the practical message is difficult to misunderstand. Businesses that continue cutting engineered stone dry, rely on basic dust masks or cannot demonstrate effective controls are likely to face enforcement action, difficult insurance conversations and potentially serious long-tail liability.
The issue is not limited to worktop fabricators. Concrete, mortar, brick, granite, sandstone, gritstone and quartzite can all contain significant amounts of crystalline silica. For contractors in Essex, Kent, London and across the UK, particularly those working in occupied buildings and enclosed refurbishment sites, the insurance implications deserve attention now.
Reality 1: Silicosis is not only a disease of old claims
The traditional assumption has been that silica-related disease develops after several decades of exposure. That remains relevant for many construction workers, but engineered stone has changed the risk profile.
HSE says engineered stone can contain up to 95% crystalline silica and that recent cases indicate silicosis can develop in months or years rather than decades. The first eight UK cases of artificial stone silicosis, reported in Thorax in 2024, involved men with a median age of 34. Four had been exposed for only four to eight years. One patient died and two were referred for lung transplantation.
That matters to employers because a worker may be young, may have worked for several businesses and may not show symptoms while employed. Silicosis can continue to worsen after exposure stops, so a claim may appear long after a project has finished, a subcontractor has moved on or a business has changed insurer.
The wider figures are also uncomfortable. HSE’s construction dust guidance, CIS36, states that more than 500 construction workers are believed to die each year from silica exposure. HSE’s updated cancer tables attribute approximately 700 lung cancer deaths each year in Great Britain to past silica exposure across all industries. Its 2025 statistics estimate that around 5,000 construction workers suffer from a work-related breathing or lung problem, with a prevalence of 0.23% compared with 0.11% across all industries.
This is why employers’ liability insurance should not be treated as a simple annual purchase. The policy may be renewed every year, but the exposure created by today’s work can remain relevant for decades.
Reality 2: The policy responding to a future claim may not be the policy you remember
Employers’ liability insurance is the main policy that responds to an employee’s silicosis claim, assuming the claim arises from insured employment and the policy terms apply. It is a long-tail exposure, and the policy year connected to the claim may not be obvious when the allegation arrives.
A worker exposed today may not bring a claim for 10, 20 or 30 years. By then, the employer may have changed insurers several times, changed legal structure or ceased trading altogether. The insurer on risk when the claim is notified may not be the insurer connected with the relevant period of exposure.
In practice, tracing the correct policy and establishing responsibility can depend on evidence. That includes the employer’s risk assessments, COSHH assessments, records of the work undertaken, employee and subcontractor details, exposure dates, training records, equipment maintenance records and health surveillance records.
HSE guidance says that workers regularly exposed to RCS, where there is a reasonable likelihood that silicosis may develop, must be provided with health surveillance. Construction is identified as a high-risk occupation. A baseline assessment should be completed before exposure or within six weeks, with a questionnaire, lung function testing and, where appropriate, chest X-rays. Individual and group results should be interpreted properly, and the health record for each worker should be kept securely for at least 40 years from the last entry.
That 40-year record is not an administrative detail. It may become important evidence when an employee, former employee or their solicitor asks what controls were in place and which employer or insurer should respond.
Reality 3: HSE will look beyond engineered stone
Engineered stone is the current focus because of the severity and speed of recent cases, but ordinary construction materials remain a significant source of RCS exposure.
Concrete and mortar can contain around 25% to 70% crystalline silica. Brick and granite can contain up to 30%, while sandstone, gritstone and quartzite can contain more than 70%. The main exposure route is often the high-energy tool: cut-off saws, grinders, scabblers, breakers and grit blasters.
Outdoor work is not automatically safe. HSE warns against assuming that dust levels will be low simply because a job is outside, especially when high-energy tools are being used. Enclosed spaces are more obvious risk areas because dust can build up quickly, but the same poor control can create exposure around a wider site and affect other trades.
This is particularly relevant to retrofit, PAS 2035-related work and refurbishment projects across Essex, Kent and London. Chasing walls, scabbling floors and cutting concrete or masonry inside occupied buildings can create a difficult combination of dust, limited ventilation, residents, neighbouring businesses and multiple subcontractors.
The UK workplace exposure limit for RCS is 0.1 mg/m3 as an eight-hour time-weighted average. Employers must assess and control exposure under COSHH, but the exposure limit is not a target to work towards casually. The objective is to prevent exposure where reasonably practicable and reduce it to the lowest level that can be achieved.
For the wider site, employers’ liability may respond to an affected employee, but public liability can also become relevant if silica dust drifts onto neighbours, passers-by, adjacent occupiers or another trade’s workers. A nuisance or negligence allegation from a neighbouring business or resident is not an employers’ liability claim.
Reality 4: “We issue dust masks” is not a credible insurance answer
Underwriters are increasingly asking direct questions about silica, dust controls, respiratory protective equipment and health surveillance. The answer “we rely on dust masks” is unlikely to reassure an insurer, particularly where the business cuts engineered stone or carries out regular high-energy work on concrete and masonry.
The control hierarchy matters. Employers should first eliminate or reduce dust by design. That may mean choosing lower-silica materials, right-sizing components, using a block splitter instead of a cut-off saw, arranging off-site cutting, using direct fastening or reducing the number of cuts at the design and layout stage.
Where cutting is unavoidable, water suppression should provide enough water for the whole cut. Pre-wetting the material is not an adequate substitute. On-tool extraction must be suitable for the task, with the correct H, M or L class filter. A general commercial vacuum is not automatically suitable for silica dust.
Respiratory protective equipment is the last line of protection, not the main control. HSE’s requirements include RPE with an assigned protection factor of 20, such as an FFP3 disposable mask or half mask with a P3 filter, subject to the task and risk assessment. Face-fit testing is required, and workers must be clean-shaven where the mask seals. Powered RPE should be considered where the work lasts more than an hour without a break.
Extraction systems also need proper maintenance and thorough examination and testing at least every 14 months. If work remains dusty after controls are introduced, exposure monitoring may be necessary.
These measures affect underwriting because they demonstrate whether the business understands and manages the risk. A documented, working system can help keep Employers’ Liability, Construction Contractor Insurance and General Contractor Liability Insurance on sensible terms. A blank renewal form, inconsistent records or a history of ignoring defects can lead to higher premiums, exclusions, increased excesses or referral to a specialist underwriter.
Reality 5: Contractors must control the subcontracting chain
A main contractor cannot assume that silica responsibility disappears when cutting or grinding is subcontracted.
The people carrying out the work may be employees, labour-only subcontractors, agency workers or subcontractors operating under their own insurance. Each arrangement can affect who controls the work, who provides health surveillance, who checks the RPE and who keeps the records.
This is a familiar practical gap. Everyone assumes someone else has completed the health surveillance, checked the face fit testing or retained the exposure information. When a worker later develops disease, that uncertainty becomes much more serious.
Subcontracts should clearly address dust controls, responsibility for COSHH assessments, equipment standards, health surveillance, training, reporting and document retention. The main contractor should also check that the subcontractor’s insurance is appropriate and that the contractual arrangements do not create an uninsured responsibility.
An HSE improvement or prohibition notice on a live project may also sit alongside a contractual requirement to notify insurers. Contract works and Contractors All Risks policies may not pay simply because a project is delayed by an enforcement action, but the surrounding circumstances can affect claims, obligations and future underwriting.
Professional indemnity is a secondary consideration, but it should not be ignored where a contractor, designer or specialist has specified a material or design detail that unnecessarily increases cutting and dust exposure. Reducing cuts at design stage is therefore a safety decision, a project-management decision and potentially a claims argument.
Practical next steps for employers
The HSE guidance should be treated as the starting point for a documented review, not as something to revisit only after an inspection or claim.
First, identify every task and material that may create RCS, including ordinary concrete, brick and mortar work. Then record where the work takes place, who controls it, whether it is inside an occupied building and which subcontractors are involved.
Second, answer the health surveillance question in writing. Confirm who provides it, which workers are covered, when baseline assessments are completed and where the records are held. Make sure the risk assessment is reviewed if surveillance identifies silica-related disease or adverse health effects.
Third, check the history of your employers’ liability cover. Do not assume the current policy is the only relevant policy, and ask your broker to explain how claims-occurring wording, policy records and historic exposure interact. A legacy policy schedule and a clear record of previous insurers may become valuable evidence many years from now.
Fourth, tell your broker and insurer what controls are genuinely in place. Explain whether you use off-site cutting, lower-silica materials, water suppression, suitable extraction, face-fit-tested RPE, exposure monitoring and regular equipment testing. Leaving the renewal question blank is not the same as having a low-risk operation.
Finally, review dust clauses and health surveillance responsibilities in subcontract agreements. For a contractor in Essex, Kent or London, investing in design-stage cut reduction and off-site fabrication can support compliance, reduce disruption on occupied sites and strengthen the argument that the business is actively managing its liability exposure.
Moyak Insurance Services provides tailored business insurance for contractors and growing businesses across Essex, Kent and London. We can help review your Employers’ Liability, public liability, Construction Contractor Insurance and General Contractor Liability Insurance requirements, with an individual approach rather than a one-size-fits-all quote.
For advice, contact Moyak Insurance Services at info@moyakinsurance.co.uk, call 01375 392087 or visit www.moyakinsurance.co.uk. You can also explore General Contractors insurance and our guidance on general contractor liability insurance.