A leading figure in the drive to improve safety in the construction industry through harmonisation of qualification schemes and competence standards has been recognised in the New Year’s Honours List.
John Murphy, a founding member of the Safety Schemes in Procurement forum (SSIP) and the Contractors Health and Safety Scheme (CHAS), was awarded the MBE for services to health and safety in the construction industry.
John currently works for the London Borough of Merton as the full-time manager of CHAS, which was set up in 1997 by him and fellow health and safety and procurement professionals, together with the Association of London Government (ALG). Its main aims are to improve health and safety standards across Great Britain by assessing the competence of suppliers, and to reduce duplicated safety applications for both suppliers and buyers.
Following the revision of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations in 2007 and their introduction of the Stage 1 Core Criteria for assessing health and safety competence of contractors and consultants working in the construction industry the SSIP forum was established as an umbrella organisation to facilitate mutual recognition between health and safety pre-qualification schemes.
John Murphy stepped down as chair of the SSIP last year, having been at the helm since its inception. On hearing of his award, he said: “I’m absolutely thrilled about receiving this honour and feel incredibly proud to be recognised for the work that has been achieved through CHAS, which started in Merton.
“It is not a cliché to say that this award could not have been made without the support, hard work and commitment of the CHAS team.”
Merton Council leader, Councillor Stephen Alambritis, said: “Congratulations to John on this incredible achievement. To build the CHAS scheme from scratch to the huge success it is today is something that only someone with real passion and determination could do, and John has done it. He absolutely deserves this recognition and has really done himself and Merton very proud.”
John will collect his MBE in May.
