QPA Health And Safety Awards 2007

Martin Isles gives an insight into the scheme and this year’s winners

The QPA’s evergreen Health & Safety Awards Scheme culminated its 32nd year on 19 October 2007, with the welcome sponsorship of the Refined Bitumen Association.

A maximum capacity of 225 delegates attended No.1 Great George Street, the central London home of the Institution of Civil Engineers, to witness the Awards for the latest in health and safety best practice and innovation. By popular acclaim, this was the most successful such event in the history of the QPA.

As principal guest speaker, the QPA was most fortunate to welcome Judith Hackitt CBE, newly appointed Chair of the Health and Safety Commission. Uniquely, the event facilitated the convention of three holders of the post of ‘Commission Chair’, with Sir Bill Callaghan and Sir Frank Davies also being present. Sir Bill retired as recently as 30 September 2007, while Sir Frank had retired some eight years earlier.

This year a total of 11 trophies were presented, the most prestigious of which was the John Crabbe Memorial Trophy for overall excellence in health and safety, which was won by CEMEX UK and received by their president, Ignacio Ortiz (fig. 2).

The Sir Frank Davies Trophy, presented in person by Sir Frank for the best SME company, was awarded to Blasting Services – for the second year running (fig. 3). Blasting Services had submitted a number of entries, with one in particular which excelled, it being a device to prevent drill rig overturns. Importantly, this innovation has been recognized by several drill rig manufacturers who are incorporating the device across their product ranges.

Vaughan McLeod, chairman of Ennstone plc, received this year’s Special Award for achieving the greatest reduction in accident incident rates in recent years.

Winners of specific topic trophies in 2007 were: Wimpey Minerals Trophy: WBB Minerals (Moneystone Quarry); Trevor King Trophy: Tarmac Ltd (Dene Quarry); EPIC Trophy: Lafarge Aggregates Ltd (National); TUC Trophy: Tarmac Ltd (Whiteinch Hot Storage Depot); Blue Circle Trophy: CEMEX UK; RBA Trophy: Aggregate Industries UK Ltd (Bardon Aggregates, Topley Pike Quarry); QPA Trophy: Hanson Aggregates (Penderyn Quarry).

For those unfamiliar with the format of recent QPA Health & Safety Awards, the event is chaired by the chairman of the QPA Health and Safety Committee, who summarizes the achievements, the challenges and the expectations of the industry, before introducing the principal guest, who is invited to give the keynote address to set the scene for the ceremony that follows. Each topic, in turn, is introduced by an independent judge who presents an overview of the topic, with the initiative adjudged to be the winning entry being demonstrated by way of a mini-video. A single trophy is presented for each topic by the principal guest. There then follows a montage of videos covering a miscellany of other initiatives and further presentations are made.

Highlights from a few of the Year 2007 finalists include:

• ‘Get a Grip’ campaign, aimed at eliminating slips, trips and falls, with active participation of the workforce.
• Demonstration of a user-friendly national contractor database facilitating improved selection, control and management of contractors.
• Elimination of confined-space entry in an asphalt plant, remedying the manufacturer’s inadequate design. Martin Vaughan (on the right in fig. 4) whose on-site job has been made distinctly safer as a direct result of Hanson’s innovation, was able to attend the Awards and be part of the delegation that received the coveted QPA Trophy.
• Guillotine plate for safe working in material recovery tunnels.
• Cement delivery pipe restraining device – developed by Allen Newport Ltd – one of the QPA’s forward-thinking smaller companies – to prevent recurrence of a fatal incident on a non-member’s site caused by a flailing cement delivery hose as a result of flange connection failure under pressure (fig. 5).

The QPA is already well advanced with plans for 2008 – the 13th successive year that Martin Isles has organized these events. ‘Back in BACMI days,’ recalled Martin, ‘it was a simple Safety Competition to find the best site. Progressively, the Scheme has evolved to focus upon best practice in ‘health’ as well as safety, while the scope now extends to the full array of QPA members’ activities.’

Health and safety has now established itself as QPA Members’ foremost core value. So much so, that the quarterly submission of raw health & safety data is now a condition of membership for all QPA member companies with activities in Great Britain.

The raison d’être of the QPA Scheme is to communicate best practice and innovation in health and safety – this is principally dependent upon member companies continuing their preparedness to share their initiatives. However, the QPA is more than happy to receive entries from outside its membership – from non-member companies, be they producers of aggregates or other quarry products, contractors, or suppliers of equipment and services. The QPA’s message is simple: it is the new ideas that are wanted – their provenance, while important, is secondary to improving the health and safety performance of the whole industry. The industry has made tremendous strides in recent years and the QPA is determined to continue at the forefront of this relentless drive towards zero incidents.

The cumulative resource from this year’s Scheme is being uploaded on www.Safequarry.com, which, itself, has undergone a major upgrade to improve its usefulness and the user-friendliness of its interface.

As a visible sign of its support for the HSE’s ‘Target Zero’ campaign, the QPA commissioned Robert Stoakes Design Associates to produce a new logo (fig. 7) which is being freely offered to all stakeholders by way of providing a ‘rallying call’ branding on all future health and safety communications that contribute to the campaign of this vibrant industry.

Delegates at the 2007 QPA Awards heard Judith Hackitt (chair of the Health and Safety Commission) say: ‘I am pleased to be given the opportunity to put on record my appreciation for your achievements. I would like to encourage you to take up the challenge to ensure continuous improvement and to build in principles of sensible risk management in tackling health and safety issues. The best and most effective health and safety management systems are those that are led from the top. Health and safety is good business practice, not form-filling, red tape and work not done.’

Ms Hackitt also emphasized the importance of partnership working between HSE and the industry, leading to continuous improvements in reducing and eliminating work-related ill-health in the industry.

For further information, contact: Martin Isles on tel: (020) 7963 8000; or email: isles@qpa.org