The British Safety Council has announced the individuals, teams, initiatives and organisations who have won awards as part of the 2020 International Safety Awards Scheme. These awards recognise and celebrate outstanding achievements around the world amongst those who have made exceptional efforts to ensure peoples’ health, safety and wellbeing.

The Young Health and Safety Champion of the Year award recognises the exceptional contribution of individuals aged 16-24 in ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of their colleagues and others. The winner this year is Shewale Aniket Prabhakar, an EHS engineer from Ghaziabad, India.

The Wellbeing Initiative Award recognises organisations that can demonstrate a proactive and effective approach to improving employee wellbeing. This must be through a new or unique objective with a clear and measurable outcome, over and above the organisation’s routine work. The award is sponsored by Vitality Healthy Workplace, which provides a variety of services to help businesses to build a healthier, more engaged and productive workforce. The winner in this category is the Ashgal ‘Health and Wellness Campaign’ from India.

The Health and Safety Transformation Award recognises organisations that have changed or transformed any aspect of health, safety or wellbeing to a significant extent through the use of information. Applicants were required to describe the transformation, how it was used and its positive impact. The award is sponsored by Croner-i, one of the leading providers of information and guidance for businesses in fields such as health and safety, the environment and human resources. The 2020 winner of the award is Chr.Hansen.

New for 2020, the CEO Award recognises the leadership and strategic vision of a CEO who has made a vital contribution to the health and safety of their business and to wider society in 2019. The first winner of the new award is Matt Brabin, ISS, from the UK. For the second year running, the Team of Year Award recognises outstanding achievements resulting in a significant improvement to health, safety or wellbeing, from a collaboration of stakeholders. The winner for 2020 is Ashghal-DW002-P03 Roads and Infrastructure in West Muaither.

Also new for 2020, the James Tye Award honours the founder of the British Safety Council. Tye campaigned tirelessly to improve the health, safety and welfare of people at work. He founded the British Safety Council in 1957 and continued to support it until he died in 1996. The winner for this new award is the Transport Corporation of India Ltd.

All other winners, including sector, regional and country winners are presented on the British Safety Council website. 

Announcing the winners, Chief Executive of the British Safety Council Mike Robinson said: “My warmest congratulations to all of the individuals, teams and organisations that have won awards within our prestigious International Safety Awards scheme.The winners have made huge efforts to protect and enhance the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone in their organisations. All the winners and those who were shortlisted went the extra mile by dedicating additional time, resources and commitment to ensuring that their work, teams and workplaces remained healthy and safe during the previous year.”

“I would also like to say thank you to all of the organisations who took time to apply for these awards and to our panel of judges who volunteered to adjudicate them. The British Safety Council’s vision is that no-one should be injured or made ill through their work, anywhere in the world. By publicising the achievements of the winners of these awards, we can encourage other employers everywhere to follow their lead and give workers’ health, safety and wellbeing the priority it rightly deserves," Robinson concluded.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak the British Safety Council took the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 International Safety Awards Gala Dinner. The winners will receive their trophies and certificates by courier at the earliest opportunity.