Construction Industry Advisory Committee CONIAC
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does this through research, provision of information and advice, training, publication of regulations and codes of practice, inspection, investigation and enforcement.
The Construction Industry Advisory Committee (CONIAC) was established in 2003, to advise the HSE on the protection of people from hazards to health and safety within the building, civil engineering and engineering construction industries. Its membership comes from the HSE, employers, employees and key industry stakeholders, including small and medium-sized enterprises. It is chaired by the Chief Inspector of Construction.
CONIAC works to secure close links between the industry and HSE and to help the industry deliver Revitalising Health and Safety (RHS) targets set at the 2001 Construction Summit.
In 2013, CONIAC was reconstituted with refreshed membership and a new approach reflecting HSE’s aim of taking forward new ways of working with the constituencies represented on CONIAC.
In November 2015, HSE published ‘Occupational health risk management in construction: a guide to the key issues of occupational health provision’ prepared by the CONIAC Health Risks Working Group. The 20-page guide provides advice on assessing the risks to health in the construction industry and the role of the occupational health service in preventing or controlling those risks. It is aimed at employers, but is also relevant to directors, health and safety professionals, safety representatives and occupational health service providers.
At a meeting on 5 July 2017, CONIAC was re-constituted with a smaller steering group of just ten members. Five new working groups will feed into the steering group.
In December 2017, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) set up a Construction Industry Advisory Network (CONIAN). CONIAN will create a platform for the industry to provide information to CONIAC and to promote information produced by HSE.
Safety matters are dealt with primarily by the Managing Risk Well Group, which has produced the Safety Steps guide to working at height. This is hosted on the AIF website.
The CONIAC committee is now hosted within HSE web communities.
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