Commitment to health & safety underlined at QPA Awards

LAST week UK quarry operators battled it out to take home the industry’s top health and safety accolades at the annual QPA Health and Safety Best Practice Awards in London. This year’s event welcomed keynote speaker Judith Hackitt CBE, the newly appointed chair of the Health and Safety Commission, who spoke about the industry’s exemplary performance in improving its health and safety record.

A record 205 entries were received by the QPA in 2007, almost doubling last year’s tally, and underlining the industry’s commitment to improving its performance. The initial entries were reduced to an eventual 73 prize-winning submissions, ranging from trophy-winner to certificate of merit, across seven principal categories.

As ever, the two most prestigious prizes in the competition were the Sir Frank Davies Trophy, awarded to the most outstanding health and safety performance specifically for smaller companies, and the John Crabbe Trophy, presented for overall excellence in health and safety. This year, the former award went to Blasting Services Ltd for the second year running, while the latter was presented to CEMEX UK.

Beyond these overarching awards, prizes were also presented for achievements in seven key areas. The awards and winners were: Occupational Health, Hygiene & Welfare (WBB Minerals Ltd – Moneystone Quarry); Slips, Trips & Falls (CEMEX UK Materials Ltd); Management of Contractors (Lafarge Aggregates Ltd – Shawell Quarry); Working at Height (Tarmac Ltd – Dene Quarry); Worker Involvement (Tarmac Ltd – Whiteinch hot storage depot); Bitumen Tank Management (Aggregate Industries UK Ltd – Topley Pike Quarry); and Other Initiatives (Hanson Aggregates – Penderyn Quarry).

Each of the seven categories reflects a crucial and topical health and safety priority with innovative approaches to tackling the challenges picking up the awards. In addition, Ennstone plc picked up a further special award this year for showing the greatest improvement in their health and safety record over recent years.

Commenting on the event, Simon van der Byl, director general of QPA, said: ‘The 2007 Awards will go down as the most competitive yet, with a truly astonishing number of entries from our operators. This surely underlines the industry’s genuine commitment to tackling the health and safety challenges and the lengths companies are willing to go to reach our shared expectation of zero accidents.’

Keynote speaker Judith Hackitt similarly praised the industry’s exemplary efforts: She said: ‘Over the last few years the quarrying industry has demonstrated an impressive performance. You have more than halved the accident rate within the sector and, by doing so, you have set a example to others in your industry and to other sectors of what can be done.’

A full list of this year’s trophy winners and all the other award categories can be obtained by clicking on the QPA web link below.