Posted By steven bentham Without wanting to be too harsh to the many people and organisations that have worked for these awards, you may ask the value of such an award in itself? Some organisations have completed lots and lots of paperwork and paid the fee and now own the award - are these any better than those that have done the work and not gone for the award? Should contracts or services be thus awarded on that basis? Anything that improves the safety culture has got to be worthwhile. However, I have rarely seen a major accident that has been prevented by awards/stars or paperwork. (In fact there is not enough trees in the rainforests of the world to prevent accidents by the use of paperwork!). But on a final note: good players should be recognised and should win contracts for the investment they have put in.

Posted By J Knight I use RoSPA QSA, mainly because my ex-employer srumped up the dosh to train me in its use. It's true that paperwork won't ensure safety, but QSA does look at the implementation side of things as well, and it helps, when developing safety management systems, to know how well they match up with the various models on offer. Whether we decide to go for an award or not, just carrying out the process gives me more insight into what we do well, what we do badly and what we don't do at all than anything else I do, and this make the whole thing very much worthwhile John