BAA backs new health and safety system

THE British Aggregates Association (BAA) has given its backing to ‘Quarrysafe’, a new health and safety management system developed by the University of Exeter’s Camborne School of Mines (CSM), with the support of industrial minerals supplier WBB Minerals UK.

Funded by MIRO from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, Quarrysafe places emphasis upon people-related elements such as visible management commitment and workforce involvement, as well as covering legal and procedural requirements.

Richard Bird, executive officer of the BAA, which is now promoting Quarrysafe to its members as part of its scheme for assessing operating standards of members’ sites, said: ‘We consider Quarrysafe as the basis for health and safety management in quarries for our members. Larger operators generally employ their own in-house health and safety managers but for the smaller family business this is not always a practical proposition. Quarrysafe provides the smaller operator with an understanding of how a modern H&S management system works as well as providing the framework to develop safety systems tailored to suit their own individual operations.’

Jon Bennett, CSM researcher for the project, commented: ‘Quarrying has moved forward immensely in the last few years in the management of health and safety, while always having to maintain production imperatives. The challenge is to build on this momentum and to ensure that every individual in the sector is included in the improvement effort, with the ultimate aim of eradicating significant injuries and occupational diseases. The Quarrysafe system provides a freely available template of good practice that any quarrying company may use to review their progress in moving towards a safer working environment.’

Andy Price, integrated systems manager for WBB Minerals, who worked with CSM on development of the system by providing access to their sites during the research phase of the project, added: ‘The development and testing of Quarrysafe within WBB Minerals has helped to identify gaps requiring specific focus within the company, mainly relating to aspects of workforce involvement. The tool sits well alongside our existing integrated management system and I would certainly recommend it to others as a means of targeting resources for continuous improvement.’