Safety leadership

Atkins remains committed to health and safety improvement beyond that required by law. Our chief executive was the chair of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) and during the year we continued to work with industry through national forums such as the Strategic Health and Safety Forum, the CIC Safety Committee, and the Consultants’ Health and Safety Forum.

Last year we reported that our Highways and Transportation business had set an industry standard for designing out risks in projects. This standard has now also been adopted by the UK Government’s Environment Agency and continues to be promoted across the industry.

We continue to improve safety leadership within Atkins. Our newly appointed chairman and Group finance director both undertook the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) Managerial and Professional safety test and Group managing directors attended our safety leadership course. The Rail business developed the ‘Safe by Choice’ behavioural programme, and has seen a reduction in serious accidents. This programme has received positive feedback from the attendees of the Network Rail supplier conference, and has now also been implemented in our Highways and Transportation business.

Atkins’ safety, health and environment (SHE) culture survey was extended to our non-UK businesses. Some 8,500 staff responded to the survey, including the UK version, last year. The results showed that a positive safety and environment culture exists within Atkins but that there remains some variation between the businesses.

Figure 1: Accident incidence rate (AIR)

(AIR = number of accidents per 100,000 staff or contractors).

1. HSE Labour Force Survey results are the three-year average results for different occupations: administrative and secretarial for Office, science and technology for Engineering, and construction trades for Construction.

Our safety performance

Atkins reports accidents and incidents for staff, contractors and Joint Ventures, and in situations where we are principal contractor. The accident incidence rate (AIR) is used to measure accident performance for staff and contractors. Atkins sets its own challenging AIR benchmarks based on a reduction from the previous year of 5% for office staff and 10% for engineering staff. For construction the 2009/10 target remained unchanged. The AIR benchmarks (number of accidents per 100,000 staff or contractors) for 2010/11 are 139 for office, 287 for engineering and 1,445 for construction activities.

Last year overall performance was within Atkins AIR benchmarks with the exception of contractors in the office category, where one reportable accident was recorded. For staff we are pleased to report the AIR decreased across all three categories, reflecting the continued effort to improve safety, including raising awareness of manual handling and display screen equipment through the launch of specialist e-learning modules during European Week of Safety, and the Group-wide safety leadership programme.

Our AIR performance continues to be better than industry performance as compiled by the Health and Safety Executive in its Labour Force Survey (see Figure 1). We have actively encouraged the reporting of incidents and near misses as a positive step towards accident prevention. This year 1,227 near misses were reported compared to 1,172 in 2009.

All our operations are covered by OHSAS 18001 and we have achieved certification to the revised standard OHSAS 18001:2007.

We achieved a Group-level Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Gold award for the first time. In addition, our Highways and Transportation business received a Gold award for the fifth consecutive year and our Asset Management business achieved an Order of Distinction for the 23rd year running.

Regulatory activity

During the year, we recorded five visits by enforcement authorities. We have not been prosecuted for any breaches of health and safety regulations.