Lafarge celebrates health & safety trio of achievements

Lafarge A&C UK, part of the Lafarge Group, is celebrating a trio of major achievements in health and safety. First up is Lafarge being the first major to meet the MPA target for all Appointed Persons (such as quarry foremen or managers) at UK quarries to have a recognised qualification that demonstrates their competence in safety management. This important target, established by the MPA to help substantially reduce accidents, has been achieved through Lafarge A&C UK's ongoing commitment and investment in training and development, such as its Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme with the Institute of Quarrying, its Leeds University MSC programme and its continuous innovation of safety processes. Lafarge's Appointed Persons have attained SHE (Safety Health & Environment) NVQ qualifications.

The second achievement is being recognised, by 2009 Mineral Products Association (MPA) figures, as the safest UK quarry operator by a factor of 5 compared to its nearest major competitor.

Finally, comes entry into the worldwide Lafarge Health and Safety Excellence Club. The club features the safest Businesses from across the 79 countries in which the Lafarge Group operates measures a range of challenging Health & Safety performance indicators including achieving a frequency rate for Lost Time Incidents (incidents causing any employee to be off work for more than 1 day) of less than 1 incident per million man hours worked

Jeremy Greenwood, managing director - Readymix, who holds executive responsibility for safety across Lafarge A&C UK's three UK Businesses (Aggregates, Readymix Concrete and Asphalt, Contracting & Paving), said: "Safety is our number one priority. Ensuring our employees, the visitors to our sites and contractors with whom we partner us are safe, in everything they do, is central to our philosophy and our way of life. We are therefore very proud of these achievements. We will continue to take health and safety in our industry, and in UK PLC, to the next level."

www.lafarge.co.uk