RoSPA recognises safety performance in the construction industry

The construction industry featured prominently in the RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2010 with over 700 of the 1,750 winners coming from this sector.

RoSPA's premier honour, the Sir George Earle Trophy, was taken by Doosan Babcock - which was also the winner of the Engineering Construction Sector. For more than 50 years, the Sir George Earle Trophy has been RoSPA's most prestigious and most sought-after award, presented for the most outstanding performance in health and safety.

Doosan Babcock, a part of Doosan Power Systems, designs, supplies and constructs advanced steam generation technology for the power industry. The judging panel was particularly impressed by the strategic approach to health and safety adopted by its board members and senior managers and by managers' commitment to provide visible and felt leadership at all levels, including through workplace tours and visits.

Other strong features of the firm's approach to accident and ill health prevention include: workforce consultation and involvement; the development of a culture in which employees are encouraged to challenge their own health and safety performance as well as standards of quality and service provision; the embedding of its safety values in overseas acquisitions; the extensive coverage of health and safety in apprentices' training and in selecting and managing contractors; and its sharing of good practice and mentoring of local small-and-medium-sized firms.

Tom Mullarkey, chief executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "We offer our wholehearted congratulations to Doosan Babcock. The judging panel felt the firm thoroughly deserved the Sir George Earle Trophy not only in light of its outstanding achievements in reducing incidents and injuries but because of its complete commitment to pursue 'zero harm'. It sets a fine example that we hope others will follow." The RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2010 marked the 54th running of the annual awards programme, and continued the trend of attracting more and more entrants each year.

Other top winners from the construction industry included: Engineering Construction Sector: highly commended - Studsvik UK Limited and Birse Rail; commended - BAM Nuttall and Enpure Construction - Commercial Sector: winner - Balfour Beatty Construction Scottish & Southern; commended - Kuwait National Petroleum Company - Projects Department and McPhillips (Wellington) Construction - Housebuilding and Property Development Sector: winner - Frank Haslam Milan NE; highly commended - Tiong Seng Contractors (Pte); and commended - Lovell Partnerships - London Region.

The rest of the awards were noncompetitive achievement awards at merit, bronze, silver and gold levels, with a wide range of firms winning gold medals, President's Awards or Orders of Distinction to recognise their run of consecutive gold awards.

RoSPA's awards are presented to organisations that have shown a commitment to protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of their employees and others and to continuous improvement in this sphere. They do not just consider accident records, but also look at a firm's entire health and safety management system, from the top level down to workers on the job. The awards encourage organisations to embed health and safety deeply within their working culture, ensuring that safety becomes second nature.

This year, RoSPA was particularly pleased to receive a record number of entries despite the fact that the previous 12 months were marked by recession.

Tom Mullarkey said: "Our annual awards not only provide just recognition for individual organisations, but also encourage the raising of accident and ill health prevention standards across the board.

"We seem to break records in the number of entries each year, but this is a particularly impressive achievement in 2010 given the tough trading conditions of the past 12 months. It proves the value organisations place on having a badge of external recognition - something that will set them apart from their competitors and benefit them as they present their values to the world and tender for new business." RoSPA's awards, sponsored by NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health), were presented over three days of gala dinners and ceremonies at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel. An additional ceremony will be held in Glasgow in September.

See: www.rospa.com/awards/ for a full list of award winners.