IOSH applauds double success in King’s honours

Chris is Director of Risk Management and Compliance at Cory, a London-based recycling and waste management company. He has also been Chair of the Waste Industry Safety and Health forum (WISH) since its inception in 2001.

WISH brings together those working in the waste sector, including regulators, government bodies, local government, charitable groups, trade bodies, private and public sector organisations to share best practice in health and safety and coordinate campaigns aimed at reducing accident and ill-health rates.

Vocation and passion

In an open letter of thanks, Chris wrote:

“The need to protect the environment, make better use of resources and reduce human generated climate change has never been greater. The waste, recycling and resource management industry plays a vital, often unappreciated role in these endeavours.

“Through three decades of innovation and change, I have made it my vocation and passion to ensure that proper consideration is given to the protection and improvement of the health, safety, welfare and wellbeing of those who can be affected by these activities.

“I see this award, whilst recognising past achievement, as an encouragement to redouble our efforts to prevent injury, ill-health, loss and suffering.

The social media response to Chris’ honour was considerable. Here are just a couple of comments:

IOSH Fellow Denise Harrison started her career in the bus industry at the tender age of 17, in a bus station canteen. Now, after four decades on the buses, Denise is Head of Health and Safety for First Bus and an MBE. At 18, she became one of only six women drivers in the company, in a depot of more than 400. She was introduced to the business by her parents, her father working there as a fitter and her mother in the canteen. Being an ambassador for women in the transport industry is important to Denise.

Based in Rossendale, in Lancashire, Denise developed an IOSH-accredited national training programme for the safety management of road passenger transport operations. This helped align health and safety standards by relevance to the industry. She took a lead role in seeing First Bus through the Covid-19 pandemic and has focused a lot of her energy, post-pandemic, on continuous improvement in health and safety standards and supporting the mental health of her colleagues.

Platform

Denise is vice-chair of the health and safety committee at industry body the Confederation of Passenger Transport and uses this platform to support all bus and coach operators with safety improvements.