New joint safety initiative

The ECA and the HVCA recently teamed up at Chelsea Football Club to launch a new initiative to help members in meeting health and safety competences. The HSE has welcomed the trade associations’ development of core criteria for assessing contractor safety. Although not compulsory, the document provides guidance and a common standard to help with pre-qualification assessments.

The 12 steps, which have been introduced to tie in with next April’s revamp of the CDM Regulations, are based on the findings of a study by John Carpenter, with input from the Major Contractors’ Group and the Specialist Engineering Contractors’ (SEC) Group.

Commenting on the launch, Paul Reeve, health, safety and environment manager at the ECA said: “Both the ECA and the HVCA are working to ensure that our members have the know-how to meet these standards and we urge clients to recognise compliance with the new criteria.”

Trevor Hursthouse, chair of the SSEC Group (SEC), expressed hope that the new CDM Regulations for 2007 will “bring more to the table” and make health and safety more practical.

A robust buy-in from the public sector client is crucial, but this is something that has sadly been lacking in the past. Shelley Atkinson-Frost, director of health and safety at the Construction Confederation, stressed: “The HSE, as an enforcer, has a real role to persuade government companies. There is a real chance this initiative could help next year.”