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foreword
www.safequarry.com
Foreword
Mike Pert
Chairman
QPA Health & Safety Committee
The historic safety record of the quarrying industry has been very poor, but in more recent
times, and particularly over the last five years, we have witnessed a sea change in attitudes
to safety as a result of a determined and highly visible campaign by the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) and the leaders of the industry. This has resulted in a 52 per cent reduction in
reportable incidents, an achievement in which we can all take some satisfaction but with no
cause for complacency.
Our ultimate aim must be to have no accidents. As a step on that journey, the quarrying
industry has signed up with the HSE to a further 50 per cent reduction in incidents over the
next five years.
What will it take to achieve this essential goal? A further change in culture, ridding the
industry of any remnants of its macho, risk-taking approach; providing a better working
environment; taking a professional approach to all we do; and the refusal to accept risk as an
inevitable consequence of occupational hazard.
I hope that this guide (and the soon to be available sister website www.safequarry.com),
provide a distillation of some of the best practices in the industry and thus will help us
towards that goal. I commend it to all of you from site staff to Managing Director.
Let us create an industry in which we would be happy and proud for our children to work.
March 2006