Health and Safety

There is nothing more important to Van Elle than the health and safety of its staff and every precaution is taken to protect both them and fellow contractors on site.

As the first company in the UK to guard all of its rigs, regardless of drilling type and before legislation requiring it had actually come into force, we were regularly contacted by our competitors for help having secured contracts but unable to meet the client's necessary safety measures. At Van Elle, we don't adopt safety procedures and install equipment on rigs because we are told to do so but because we think it will protect our most important asset; our employees.

With an experienced and highly qualified safety team, we continually undergo internal audits on our processes and procedures to ensure our method/risk assessments, health and safety policy and other such documents are as comprehensive as possible. As members of all of the industry's best known certification and qualification schemes including SSIP, SMAS, Link-Up, Building Confidence, Safemark and Safe Contractor, we are regularly audited and are active members of both the FPS and BDA.

In recent years, we have implemented a safety campaign, 'Think Safety, Act Safely'. This has resulted in an increase in the reporting of hazards and 'near misses' of more than 2400% helping to prevent all site staff, not just those employed by Van Elle, from having accidents before they occur.

Each of our engineers, managers and directors are tasked with carrying out at least 2 unannounced site audits per month, the results of which are linked to our site team's bonus'. Each member of our health and safety team also spends 2-3 days per week on sites.

As the largest independent geotechnical engineering contractor in the UK and the '2011 Ground Engineering Contractor of the Year' it is our priority to ensure the safety of our employees at work.

For more information on our approach to health and safety, policies and procedures, please contact Gary Levers, Group Safety Manager, on 01773 580580 or at gary.levers@van-elle.co.uk.

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