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Des Browne MP, Minister of State for Work will be the principal speaker, and he is joined on the platform by Kevin Myers, HSE Chief Inspector of Construction, Peter Jacobs of Bovis Lend Lease, John Marshall from Jomaro, and Ian Whittingham MBE, all winners of Working Well Together Awards in 2002, will also be speaking on the theme of "Building the Future Safely".
Said Geoff Snow, FMB National President:
"The FMB has taken a leading role in the improvement of health and safety standards in the construction industry, and is committed to doing more in the future to reduce the unacceptable levels of death and injury caused on construction sites up and down the country each year. In particular, we are taking every opportunity to highlight how small firms can improve their health and safety practices, and our National Conference continues this work."
The conference will explore in detail:
- Changing the construction industry's culture to a health and safety agenda;
- The lessons that small firms can learn from large firms health and safety practices;
- How health and safety need not mean high cost;
- The integration of health and safety training with other industry training;
- The consequences of serious accidents for individuals.
Over the last 12 months, the FMB has forged a unique partnership with the Working Well Together initiative to provide a series of Safety and Health Awareness Days across the UK. So far over 20 have been held, with typically 300 to 500 participants at each. Not only do these events provide a rare opportunity to get the health and safety message over to a large number of small firms, but they have also begun to forge health and safety partnerships between larger firms and their sub-contractors. Many larger firms, which have involved their sub-contractors in the initiative, are now working closely with the FMB on health and safety matters.
Geoff Snow, further outlined the FMB's proactive stance on Health & Safety initiatives throughout the country, saying:
"The FMB has taken the lead in the development of the Worker Safety Advisor (WSA) scheme. We hope that WSA will be able to continue in the future. We are also working with the HSE on Whole Body Vibration, on reforms of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations and on Occupational Health issues. All of these will be key to greatly improving health and safety outcomes in the future."
Concluding on the conference topic, Geoff Snow added:
"By making health and safety the theme of our annual conference, the FMB is demonstrating its commitment to health and safety improvement. We look forward to working more closely with the HSE in the future"
First posted: 5 September 2003. Last modified: 5 September 2003.
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