Northern Ireland's quarry and quarry products sector has been praised this week for its commitment to improving its safety standards.

HSENI’s Chairman, Professor Peter McKie, made the comments at the Quarry and Quarry Products Health and Safety Conference in Cookstown, where he presented awards to the winners of this year's Quarry Products Association Northern Ireland (QPANI) Health and Safety Awards Scheme.

Addressing the conference delegates Professor McKie said: "The positive work of the quarry and quarry products industry, in raising health and safety standards, is a credit to the sector and should be an inspiration to other industries.

"The improvement by the companies in the sector is something that other industries could learn from."

The QPANI aims to improve health and safety standards through its 'hard targets' initiative.

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Launched in 2005, it aimed to reduce reportable accidents by 50% over five years and with an annual reduction of 10% each year.

The QPANI was supported by the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland (HSENI) during the preparation and delivery of the Initiative.

Professor McKie continued: "The innovative initiative is a positive example of how industry and the safety regulator can work together to drive up standards.

"One measure of this success has been the reduction in the fatal accident incident rate which has almost halved from 15.8 in 2004 to 8.3 in 2007," he continued.

Welcoming the HSENI Chairman to the conference Pat Lyons, QPANI Chairman, remarked: "The industry has shown great leadership and teamwork by breaking down instinctive barriers between HSENI and the industry, and indeed between member companies in sharing best practice to deliver continuous improvements in health and safety standards over recent years.

"However, we are certainly now in a very challenging economic period and there is a risk that standards could slide if we lose focus on driving health and safety standards forward. Strong visible leadership is now critical at a time when employees feel jobs are threatened and attention to personal health and safety may be reduced.

"The Association is determined through its member companies to strive for excellence in the vital area of health and safety," he concluded.

(BMcC)