Bob Cummins

"Black & Veatch has continually provided a high standard in health and safety when working for Scottish Water Solutions," said Bob Cummins, Head of Health & Safety at Scottish Water Solutions.

Controlling health and safety among contractors is all about stopping duplication and agreeing a unified approach, according to Bob Cummins, head of health and safety at Scottish Water Solutions (SWS).

Speaking to the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) conference on Tuesday, Cummins said that it did not make sense to routinely visit contractors and repeat inspections that they had already done themselves.

"Until a couple of years ago there was a large amount of duplication in the supply chain, because there was a ‘them and us' attitude to inspections," he said."We were inspecting on the same points and it was frequently commented on that we were adding no value.Instead, the key is to work in partnership and to take a more targeted approach in the way that we manage risk."

Cummins's solution was to hold facilitated workshops with all 15 of SWS's major contractors at which they agreed a shortlist of points to be covered in any inspection.The contractors fulfil these requirements and then SWS vets the process by inspecting a random sample of projects.The number of reportable accidents and service suspensions has reduced since the process was changed.

"In the past, we used statistics on accidents and service strikes to monitor trends, and it was rather reactive," said Cummins.

BOB Cummins was appointed Head of Health & Safety at Scottish Water Solutions early in 2006 after joining the business from MJ Gleeson's Scottish operations.

Bob, 34, is a well known figure in Health & Safety in the UK construction sector with more than 17 years experience.

He started his career with Morrison as an engineer's assistant before going on to study civil engineering at Abertay University.

He then joined MJ Gleeson in Northampton as Site Engineer working in water and wastewater treatment before working his way up to Senior Engineer with the company.

He moved to Birse Construction in Aberdeen in 1995, continuing with engineering roles until becoming Health and Safety Manager with the company in 1997 initially in the North of England before moving to Southern England.

In 2004, Bob returned to Scotland as Senior Health and Safety Advisor for MJ Gleeson where he was responsible for a team of five Health & Safety staff covering around 850 operatives and 60 live sites in Scotland.

In his current role with Scottish Water Solutions Bob manages Health and Safety for the biggest construction partnership in the UK which is delivering Scottish Water's Q&S II and Q&S III (a) programmes.

Bob Cummins, Head of Health and Safety, Scottish Water Solutions

"Black & Veatch has continually provided a high standard in health and safety when working for Scottish Water Solutions," said Bob Cummins, Head of Health & Safety at Scottish Water Solutions. "Its contribution to Scottish Water Solutions' goal to