Grass-roots groups which help raise awareness of the safety and health of workers across the country have had their commitment honoured at a national awards ceremony.

 The Alan Butler Awards for Excellence scheme was established to recognise and reward best practice among local safety groups.

All the winners are part of the Safety Groups UK movement, a long-established part of the country’s occupational health and safety system. The groups provide forums for communicating safety and health information nationwide and offer help to employers, especially small firms.

 Winners in the 2009 round of the awards scheme, which has been sponsored by BT for the last 14 years, were honoured at the House of Lords at the end of January.

 They were:

 Best Membership Retention and Recruitment Approach: Bradford Area Occupational Health and Safety Forum.

 Best Overall Programme: North West Wales Health and Safety Group, with West & North Yorkshire Construction Safety Association highly commended and Isle of Wight Health and Safety Group commended.

 Best Seminar/Workshop: Nottinghamshire Occupational Safety and Health Association, with North West Wales Health and Safety Group highly commended. Solent Occupational Safety Association and Suffolk and North Essex Occupational Safety Group were commended.

 Best Communication: Safety Health and Environment Forum (SHEF) Scotland, with Birmingham Health Safety & Environment Association and Northern Ireland Safety Group commended.

 The awards were presented by Health and Safety Minister Lord McKenzie at a luncheon hosted by Lord Brougham & Vaux, President of Safety Groups UK.

 The Minister said: “I want to pay tribute to the hard work that safety groups throughout the UK do, contributing to making this country one of the safest places to work in the world. In particular, these awards acknowledge the very real contribution to worker safety and occupational health of these outstanding safety professionals.

 “With 180 people fatally injured while doing their jobs last year, there is still much more for all of us to do to improve health and safety. The groups receiving awards today are very much leading the way in driving those improvements.”

 Roger Bibbings, occupational safety adviser at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and secretary of Safety Groups UK, said: “Week in and week out, these groups, which are made up of volunteers, work hard for others’ wellbeing.

 I commend each member for the fine example they set in taking occupational safety and health seriously, especially during this time when the sector faces difficult challenges.”

 RoSPA supports Safety Groups UK, provides its secretariat and hosts its website (www.safetygroupsuk.org.uk). The movement is comprised of around 70 local groups, whose contact details can be found on the website.