Hinkley Point C Bouygues–Laing case: safety and liability takeaways for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke have pleaded not guilty to two alleged health and safety offences at EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear construction site, one involving a worker fatality. The cases, brought by the Office for Nuclear Regulation, relate to incidents during major civil works on the reactor complex, where heavy lifting operations, deep excavations and complex temporary works demand stringent CDM and nuclear site licence compliance. Contractors across UK megaprojects will be watching closely for any precedent on corporate liability for site safety management.
Technical Brief
- One case involves a fatal incident; the second concerns a serious worker injury on the same project.
Our Take
Hinkley Point C has already featured in our safety-tagged coverage this month, with the Office for Nuclear Regulation issuing a fire enforcement notice to the Bylor JV (Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke), signalling a pattern of regulatory scrutiny on multiple risk fronts at the site rather than an isolated event.
Bouygues and Laing O’Rourke are also central to the planned Sizewell C delivery team alongside Balfour Beatty, so any adverse findings at Hinkley Point C could translate into tighter oversight, more conservative temporary works and fire strategies, and potentially higher compliance costs on future UK nuclear infrastructure packages.
In our database of 272 Infrastructure stories, Bouygues appears repeatedly on complex underground and tunnelling schemes such as Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel and the Lower Thames Crossing, suggesting that safety performance at Hinkley Point C may influence how clients assess the contractor’s risk profile on other high-hazard, confined-space projects.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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