9 July 2010

 

Health and Safety Executive & British Sugar reach a significant milestone

Today marked a significant milestone between British Sugar and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding; recognising the health and safety performance of British Sugar, and developing our partnership to raise awareness of the importance of health and safety within the workplace.
 

The key areas of focus within the Memorandum of Understanding include; the Health and Safety Executive assisting British Sugar’s continued development of our Safety Leadership Programme to strengthen safety leadership, and the enhancement of safe working practices.  British Sugar will champion the Health and Safety Executive’s mission to improve health and safety standards within the workplace by becoming an ‘exemplar’ in the field of occupational health and safety, and by providing visible safety leadership.
 

Gino De Jaegher, Managing Director, UK & Ireland, British Sugar commented, “I am extremely proud of British Sugar being recognised by the Health and Safety Executive today.  Health and safety is of critical importance to our business and our people, and supports our vision to eliminate all injuries by thinking safety first in everything we do”. David Ashton, Director of Field Operations, Health and Safety Executive, concluded “British Sugar has put considerable effort into making improvements to its health and safety performance over the last five years – and the results clearly demonstrate how uniting employers and employees together can create safer and healthier workplaces.  When we launched the health and safety strategy last year, we made it clear that everyone has a role from the board room to the shop floor. It’s encouraging to see a major British employer taking this on board and working so hard and with such good results to reduce workplace risks”.
 

The signing was supported by the GMB and Unite Unions. Tony Ellingford, Regional Officer, Unite Union commented, “today represents a clear commitment to the health and safety of our members and supports Unite’s vision of employers and employees working together to ensure a safe and healthy working environment”.
 

The Memorandum of Understanding supports British Sugar’s health and safety behaviour, whilst supporting our vision of eliminating all injuries by creating a culture of ‘preventing injury and ill health’ at work.  British Sugar has over recent years achieved recognition from RoSPA (Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents) in the form of numerous awards, including most recently the Order of Distinction across a number of sites.  British Sugar was also awarded a 2009 DuPont Safety Award within the innovative approach category for its company-wide personal safety initiative called Safety Performance Discussions.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk.