The MPA Health and Safety Awards highlight outstanding actions, initiatives, innovations and leadership practices - from individuals and small teams to major global players. Sharing crucial information about how to make the industry’s workplaces safer and celebrating the achievements of those involved, they exemplify the core values of Vision Zero ‘Safe and Well Everyday’ the MPA’s strategy to eliminate the most serious incidents, the so called ‘The Fatal Six’ and to raise health and safety standards, across the industry.

This year, Brett Group was awarded the coveted John Crabbe Trophy for companies with over 250 employees for outstanding performance in health, safety and wellbeing, while the top prize for SMEs - the Sir Frank Davies Trophy - was awarded to AG Paving + Building Products.

The 2024 Awards were introduced by Lex Russell, MPA Chair, who emphasised not only his personal commitment to ensuring that everyone in the workforce went home safe and well every day, but the determination of the MPA Board members to improve health and safety within the industry.

Encouraging everyone watching the awards to think of how they could apply something they had seen today within their own organisation, he stated that: “A vital element in delivering this goal is the sharing of information about both good practice within the industry and incidents, particularly those incidents in which people have or could have been seriously injured. By learning from each other and sharing information, we will achieve a safer environment for all. The MPA Health and Safety Awards coupled with Safequarry play a critical role in facilitating this.”

The online event was viewed by individuals working in all sectors of the mineral products industry, watching from sites and offices around the country, learning how colleagues from across the industry have introduced new initiatives and innovations that mitigate or eliminate health and safety challenges.

Winners and finalists were announced for the following awards:

• Eight Topic awards that focus on different activities within the product life cycle or an organisation’s initiatives associated with health and wellbeing.

• ‘The Fatal 6 Award’ for an exceptional innovation to eliminate one or more of the high-consequence hazards responsible for most fatalities within the industry.

• The Eurobitume Trophy for the best entry involving bitumen, from production, storage and handling to delivery and highway contracting.

• A special award in recognition of initiatives in relation to the health and wellbeing, and in particular, programmes specifically related to the welfare of women in the workplace.

• Two awards that recognise the critical role that individuals play in championing health and safety within their organisations, the Young Leader Award (sponsored by MPQC) and the Individual Recognition Awards.

• The John Crabbe Trophy and the Sir Frank Davies Trophy recognising outstanding achievement in health and safety by a company.

Award winners were as follows:

• John Crabbe Trophy: Brett Group (Winner)
  CEMEX and Tarmac Holdings (Joint Runners-up)
   
• Sir Frank Davies Trophy: AG Paving + Building Products (Winner)
  Burlington Stone (Runner-up)
   
• Young Leader Award: Laura Jackson - Aggregate Industries (Winner),
  Grant Garrick – Pat Munro (Alness) Ltd (Runner-up)
   
• ‘The Fatal 6’ Award: AG Paving + Building Products (Winner)
  CEMEX and Marshalls (Joint Runners-up)
   
• Eurobitume Award: Hogan Holdings (Winner)
  Northstone Materials (Runner-up)

Category topic award winners:

• Safer production: Marshalls
• Safer maintenance & housekeeping: CEMEX
• Safer handling of inbound & outbound materials: Prospare Ltd
• Safer management of pedestrians & transport on site: Heidelberg Materials UK with MecTech
• Safer transport & logistics: Clubb Sand & Gravel and Heidelberg Materials UK (Joint winners)
• Safer operations on site: Tarmac Holdings Ltd
• Safer through improvements in health & wellbeing: AG Paving + Building Products
• Safer together: Brett Group
• MPA Special Award for Safer through improvements in health and wellbeing -‘Hey Girls’ and menopause support emanating from their Wellbeing Strategy Group: CEMEX

Colin Mew, MPA’s Head of Health & Safety congratulated the award winners and thanked all those who had submitted entries: “With entries from 33 companies across 8 topics (numbering 142 entries), we’ve seen an impressive new array of health and safety initiatives and ideas shared from every corner of the industry. Most important of all, I hope that everyone who watched today’s event returns to work with fresh inspiration, new ideas and better practices to implement to make their own businesses safer than ever.”

Chris Leese, Member of the Executive Management Committee at MPA said: “I congratulate every company that made an entry into the 2024 awards because each of them is helping to make our industry safer for everyone. All the 2024 entries - as well as those from previous years - help to provide member companies with a wealth of good practices and ideas which they can put into practice, where appropriate, within their own operations.”

Details of all the entries into the MPA Health & Safety Awards will be added to SafeQuarry.com, the free-to-access mineral products global hub for health and safety. Videos of the finalists and winning entries can be viewed on the MPA YouTube channel which also features a film of the whole of the 2024 awards event as well as previous years.

The MPA thanks the experienced team of award judges – Dave Bagshaw, Darren Broadhead, Jim Claydon, Rory Graham, John Wilkinson.

Thanks also to headline sponsor DAF Trucks Ltd plus category sponsors John Crabbe Trophy – Certora Training; Sir Frank Davies Trophy – SMT; Safer transport and logistics (Topic Award) – STAS UK; Eurobitume Trophy – Eurobitume UK; Individual Recognition Awards – JCB; Young Leader Award – MPQC

Ends.

A full list of Award Winners and Finalists follows on subsequent pages.

Media enquiries: Elizabeth Clements, Elizabeth.Clements@mineralproducts.org

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 industrial sand industries. With affiliation of the British Association of Reinforcement (BAR), the British Calcium Carbonate Federation, the Cement Admixtures Association (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 2021, the industry supplied £22 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 £178 billion. Industry production represents the largest materials flow in the UK economy and is also one of the largest manufacturing sectors.