A code of practice designed to help construction businesses tackle the root causes of poor mental health, including the industry’s historically high rates of suicide, has been published by the Construction Leadership Council.
The code has been developed by a coalition, including the Department for Business and Trade, The Crown Estate, BAM UK & Ireland, the charity Mates in Mind and the University of Warwick.
It aims to shift the sector’s approach from crisis intervention to prevention, said the council.
Construction continues to experience one of the highest suicide rates of any industry. Back in 2024, for example, the social media company On The Tools found that 73% of the UK’s 2.1 million construction workers have been affected by mental illness. In the last decade alone, 7,000 people had taken their own lives.
While many organisations have as a result introduced mental health support services in recent years, the council argued that, too often, the focus has been on helping workers only after they begin to struggle, rather than addressing workplace factors that contribute to poor mental health in the first place. These factors, the code has argued, can include:
- working patterns, such as long hours and extensive travel;
- people and workplace factors, including relationships at work;
- operational pressures, such as demanding commercial environments and deadlines;
- barriers to accessing mental health support; and
- financial issues, including late payment, precarious working and job insecurity.
The code was informed by research involving construction workers, an industry consultation and input from academics. Feedback included from more than 3,000 industry respondents as well as a series of regional worker focus groups.
The code can be downloaded at https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/CLC-Mental-Health-Code-of-Practice-V1.pdf
