The Panel consist of between 6 & 8 nominated professional representatives from across the public and private sector; plus one representative from GSNet. Nominees to the Panel are to have the attributes identified in ICE3009(1) and be endorsed by the ICE NI Committee. The Chair and the majority of Panel members are to be members of ICE. 

Ordinarily members will serve on the Panel for 2 years, with the opportunity to sit for a further 2 years, with no Panel member serving longer than 4 years without a gap of at least 1 year. 

Current Panel members listed on right-hand side.

Download our Terms of Reference 

Construction Industry (NI Region) Safety and Health Declaration

 The Declaration recognises: 

• The right of all construction workers to have a working environment, which protects and promotes their safety and their health. 
• That organisations’ commitment to safety and health requires employee participation at all levels. 
• That improved workforce safety and health aligns closely with increased business sustainability and benefits the economy. 

To show your support you can download a version of the Declaration for display in your workplace.

Download the Declaration 

A number of the key decision-makers signed the declaration at the Decision Makers Conference held to mark International Workers Memorial Day in May 2012. 

List of the original signatories 

The Principle of Prevention

The principle that prevention is a universal responsibility is predicated on the concept that competent organisations with the appropriate resources and authority have the technological and intellectual capability to deliver a safe and healthful product or service. Why then does the International Labour Organisation (ILO)  estimated that 2.3 million workers die annually as a result of occupational accidents and work-related disease. Across the globe, there are some 270 million occupational accidents and 160 million work related diseases each year. The ILO contends that it has never accepted the notion that injury and disease “go with the job”, arguing that prevention work. Published in Facts on Safe Work (ILO 2004) ILO states that “In the course of the 20th Century, industrialised countries saw a clear decrease in serious injuries, not least because of real advances in making the workplace safety and healthier. The challenge is to extend the benefits of this experience to the whole working world”. 

Prevention through Design

Every construction-related safety or ill-health incident represents a loss of control of the work operation, whether that loss is at the hands of the individual worker, or at the highest levels of the planning and design stage of the project. 

The success of any construction process begins with the client and his willingness to commission a project that will bear the test of time and stand acknowledged by present and future generations as a symbol of excellence in the built environment.  The translation of that desire into preliminary drawings, detailed plans, construction and eventually to the finished project will fall to competent advisors; the architects and designers, engineers and principal contractors.  The relationship between these players is crucial to the successful implementation of the client’s wishes.  It has been said that the million-dollar mistake can be traced back to these early stages in the design process and the decisions made at the first scribbling of the design, whereas with early identification and correction, using a structured design checking process the costs, by comparison, would be marginal.

Designers are in a unique position to eliminate or reduce the risks that arise during construction work and have a key role to play in the design and management of construction projects. The earliest design decisions can fundamentally affect safety and health. It is tasked to the designers and engineers to advise the client on the feasibility of his project and the resource requirements to make it work. Behind any project there are fundamental principles that are universally applicable and which the designers and engineers must keep to the fore from the outset. Construction projects, whether public works or private developments must demonstrate adherence to the key engineering principles:

• Fitness for purpose,
• Buildability/ constructability,
• Maintainability (including emergency preparedness and security), and
• Demolition  & disposability

The basic premise in construction is that construction projects should designed in a manner that they can be built, used, maintained and demolished in a manner that does not cause harm to the workers or others who come in contact with them.