The importance of a collaborative approach to health and safety is recognised across the Mineral Products Industry. This is reflected in organisations such as the Mineral Products Association (MPA), the Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee (QNJAC), the Mineral Products Qualifications Council (MPQC), the British Aggregates Association (BAA), and the Institute of Quarrying (IQ) working together in a Strategic Safety Forum that facilitates initiatives and complementary activities that will help make our industry safer for all.  

It is in this spirit of collaboration that MPA and QNJAC were delighted to jointly launch updated versions of Safequarry and the QNJAC websites at the industry’s Strategic Safety Forum today. Both websites are freely available and allow users to review or download key health and safety information and resources which are of relevance to the industry.

Safequarry provides an important central hub which includes a wide range of health and safety information, links, tools and videos that are relevant to all product sectors within the mineral products industry.

The QNJAC website holds guidance for quarries that has been created by working groups comprised of industry specialists, this guidance has been HSE approved.

Jon Prichard, the recently appointed Chief Executive of MPA, said “The MPA Health and Safety Awards were the first public event that I attended in my new role. I was very impressed by the huge amount of energy and enthusiasm that was being devoted to health and safety within the industry with some really innovative ideas being shown. The theme for the day was ‘Safer by Sharing’ and I found that this was reflected not only in many of the projects highlighted in the days programme but also in discussions with people from across the industry. I am confident that everyone attending the event will have identified some innovation that could be applied or adapted to make their own workplace safer.

Ensuring that key health and safety material, such as the QNJAC Guidance, the MPA’s ‘Sharing good practice guides’, incident alerts and other resources available through Safequarry, is easily accessible is vital.

If we are going to be able to drive up standards and performance in the industry, then we must be able to deliver and promote these resources effectively to as wide a cross section of companies and individuals as possible. The relaunch of both the Safequarry and the QNJAC websites are important steps in this process, with both now incorporating a more user friendly and ‘searchable’ format.”

Ben Williams Chair of the IQ and QNJAC, said “One of the key focuses of QNJAC is to help promote even greater collaboration between IQ, the MPQC, the MPA and QNJAC. As a committee, QNJAC shows the value of cross sector working with the input of the HSE, Trade Unions, industry employers, trade associations (including MPA and BAA) and professional bodies. The joint launching of both websites reinforces this commitment of the industry to maintain the highest standards of safety culture in the sector.

We will achieve more as an industry by playing to our strengths and being committed to making the industry a safer place through the raising of training standards and competence.

Ensuring that key information such as the QNJAC Guidance, MPA’s extensive range of resources including Vision Zero and ‘The Fatal 6’ and indeed other resource are easily accessible and promoted across the industry is essential if we are going to be successful in raising our standards still further. We are delighted therefore, that we were able to launch these two websites at the Strategic Safety Forum.”  

The commitment to ‘Safer by Sharing’ is one of the core values of Vision Zero - Collaboration and Sharing - Building effective relationships & sharing knowledge and good practices. The goal of Vision Zero is to eliminate the hazards from the mineral products industry that are responsible for 94% of fatalities and the most serious injuries.

Ends.

Editors Notes:

About the Mineral Products Association:

The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar and silica sand industries. With the merger of British Precast, and affiliation of the British Association of Reinforcement (BAR), the British Calcium Carbonate Federation, the Cement Admixtures Assocation (CAA), CONSTRUCT, Eurobitume, MPA Northern Ireland, MPA Scotland and the UK Quality Ash Association (UKQAA), it has a growing membership of 520 companies and is the sectoral voice for mineral products. MPA membership is made up of the vast majority of independent SME quarrying companies throughout the UK, as well as the 9 major international and global companies. It covers 100% of UK cement and lime production, 90% of GB aggregates production, 95% of asphalt and over 70% of ready-mixed concrete and precast concrete production. In 2018, the industry supplied £16 billion worth of materials and services to the Economy. It is also the largest supplier to the construction industry, which had annual output valued at £172 billion in 2018. Industry production represents the largest materials flow in the UK economy and is also one of the largest manufacturing sectors.

For media enquiries, contact Elizabeth Clements at: Elizabeth.Clements@mineralproducts.org

About QNJAC:
QNJAC is an abbreviation of the Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee.

QNJAC is a tripartite body comprising quarrying and extractive industry representatives of employers; employees; the government regulator (Health & Safety Executive, HSE); professional membership bodies; trade unions; and industry training/educational organizations.

The ‘engine room’ of QNJAC comprises a series of Sub-Committees and working groups which focus on subject areas or projects, as required. Working groups look at regulations along with innovations, accident and incident reports, best practice, and new technologies to produce updated guidance.

Approved QNJAC output is principally in the form of Guidance documents which, when confirmed by HSE’s Publications Governance Group, are published on the QNJAC website. This guidance along with self-audits can help employers understand where they are in relation to regulations, help create action plans to fill gaps and use the new guidance to apply the regulation in today's working environment.

QNJAC is made up of volunteers from quarrying and related products industry, everyone involved are passionate about this work and the overall aim, is to help everyone working in this great industry, stay safe.

Main points of QNJAC

• QNJAC is the Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee.
• Focused on promoting the health and safety in all sectors of the quarrying and associated industries.
• Committed to making the industry a safer place, through the raising of training standards and competence.
• Providing approved guidance documents available to all, visit us at www.QNJAC.co.uk