Hewden, the UK's largest plant hirer, is celebrating winning a prestigious RoSPA Occupational Health & Safety Award.

The Silver Award, the second highest award given by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), will be presented at a ceremony at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel on 13 May 2008.

David Rawlins, RoSPA Awards Manager, said: "Hewden 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."

Jim Gray, Head of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality for Hewden commented: "We are extremely proud to have been recognised for our ongoing dedication to implementing and maintaining robust health and safety management systems which ensure the safety and well-being of our employees and our customers. We are further proud of our employees who champion excellent health and safety practice in every activity they undertake and this was evident earlier this year when Hewden managed to achieve the milestone of 2 million hours worked without an injury resulting in lost time from work.

"We will continue to drive standards ever higher to remain at the top of our game and will aim to achieve a gold award in 2009. Winning a Silver RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Award on our first ever entry is certainly a considerable achievement."

The RoSPA awards 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. Entering the awards scheme reinforces the message that good health & safety is good business and clearly demonstrates an organisation's dedication to the achievement of high levels of performance in this crucial area.