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News Release from: Health and Safety Executive | Subject: Construction Health and Safety Summit
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 25 February 2005
Construction Health and Safety Summit
Construction industry renews its determination to health and safety commitments.
Senior executives and union representatives from across the construction industry met at a Construction Health and Safety Summit held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London to review progress on the health and safety commitments given at the Construction Summit in 2001, celebrate successes, and to commit to further action to further improve the industry's health and safety performance The Strategic Forum launched a new 'Respect for People' code of practice for construction at the event
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 13 Jul 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The code provides a unifying framework for action by all parts of the industry and highlights leading issues on which the industry intends to focus:.
* Behavioural change.
* Occupational health and rehabilitation.
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* Design.
* Corporate, and individual competence.
* Integrated working and worker engagement.
* Benchmarking, and sharing best practice.
In her keynote speech, Jane Kennedy, Minister for Work at the Department for Work and Pensions said: "I welcome the progress the industry made so far, but it is falling short of the challenging targets it set itself in 2001.
The Construction Summit in 2001 was a watershed for many in accepting ownership for the industry's health and safety performance.
The commitment to challenging five- and ten-year targets for improvement was courageous and demonstrated the determination within the industry to drive through cultural change.
"One of the aims of today's event is to celebrate progress since then.
I congratulate the industry on what has been achieved - but we must not lose sight of continuing failures.
I want to see stakeholders to take ownership of the health and safety challenges, show leadership in taking action and forge new partnerships to accelerate health and safety improvements." Nigel Griffiths, Under Secretary of State for Construction at the Department of Trade and Industry also addressed the delegates: "Construction is one of the UK's most successful industry sectors with year on year growth regularly reported.
It deserves credit that it is committing itself, through these Summits, to continuing improvement in its health and safety performance to match its business performance.
A safe and healthy workforce will deliver projects on time and to budget - goals that meet all the aspirations of those attending today." Summing up at the conference, Bill Callaghan, Chair of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), said: "You, the construction industry, committed yourself to challenging targets at the 2001 Construction Summit.
We are now at a critical stage, the industry is changing for the better and has achieved the lowest incident rates on record, but we cannot become complacent.
If the industry is to meet its Revitalising targets, it needs to commit to further actions, be innovative, and above all respect the industry's most valuable asset, its workforce." Mr Callaghan added: "I welcome the 'Respect for People' code of practice, which I see as key in marking out the improvements we are looking for.
The eight leading issues identified by the code are relevant to everyone, in all companies, in all sectors.
They have come from you, the industry, those who are best placed to know where the greatest impact can be made.
Through ownership, leadership and partnership in the leading issues you have identified, I am convinced that we can continue to make progress in the years ahead." Everyone can join in the health and safety debate through the HSE-web based Construction Discussion Forum.
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