Top Safety Award for Northern Gas Mains Company

The company which looks after the North of England’s gas mains has won a prestigious safety award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).

United Utilities, which runs the region’s 36,000km gas main network on behalf of Northern Gas Networks, earned a RoSPA Gold Award for occupational health and safety. The company has offices and depots across the region including North Tyneside, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, York, Hull, Leeds and Heckmondwike.

The award will be presented officially at a ceremony in Birmingham on May 13.

David Rawlins, RoSPA Awards Manager, said: “United Utilities has shown a commitment to protecting the health and well-being of its employees and others. We hope other businesses and organisations will follow its lead and strive for continuous improvement in health and safety management.”

As well as keeping the gas flowing to 2.5 million homes and businesses across the North of England, United Utilities runs the region’s gas emergency service on behalf of Northern Gas Networks.

Its 1,200 staff also manage Northern Gas Networks’ annual £60m gas mains investment programme which replaces 528km of old metal pipe with modern plastic pipe every year.

“It’s our job to keep Northern Gas Networks’ system safe and reliable for the millions of people in our region who rely on it,” said United Utilities’ Health and Safety Manager Peter Christie. “Safety is always top of our list and it’s great that independent experts at RoSPA have acknowledged the quality of our safety record and our systems.”

The RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2008 are sponsored by NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Health and Safety), the leading health and safety professional body.

They are not just about reducing the number of accidents and cases of ill-health at work, they help to ensure that organisations have good health and safety management systems in place.