Bennett receives prestigious honour

Peter Bennett, the managing director of Mobile access tower association PASMA has been awarded an OBE in the UK’s New Year’s Honours List for his services to business in the access and work at height sector.

Managing director of PASMA since 2006, Bennett is also chair and founding member of the Access Industry Forum (AIF), a founding trustee and current chair of the No Falls Foundation charity, and, most recently, was instrumental in establishing the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Working at Height.

PASMA’s managing director also serves on a number of national and international standards-setting committees, sits on various advisory groups at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and contributes to the work of the Better Regulation Panel at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

In 2007 he was appointed executive director of the Ladder Association. He has also served as a Council member, Training Committee chairman and president of IPAF.

PASMA chair, Gillian Rutter, said, “This honour is richly deserved and reflects the huge contribution that Peter has made, not only to the growth and success of PASMA, but to the development and recognition of the work at height industry in general.”

“He is passionate about height safety as evidenced by the fact that PASMA alone now trains upwards of 75,000 people a year - an increase of 2,500% compared with 1999/2000.”

Commenting on the award, Bennett said, “In accepting this honour I am deeply conscious of the need to acknowledge the unstinting help and support I have received, and continue to receive, from the PASMA secretariat, PASMA members and, of course, my colleagues in the Access Industry Forum and the wider work at height community.”

“I would also like to pay tribute to those individuals who willingly give up their precious time to serve as PASMA officers and committee members to advance the work and role of the Association. This honour is as much for them as it is for me.”

Born in Glasgow in 1959, Bennett attended the University of Glasgow. He then joined the Glasgow office of national scaffolding company Stephens & Carter to begin a lifelong career in the work at height industry. In 1988 he moved to Turner Access Ltd as general manager, leaving in 2004 to establish the PASMA secretariat.

Since its creation in October 2017, Bennett has been actively involved in the APPG for Working at Height. Chaired by Alison Thewliss, Member of Parliament for Glasgow Central, the APPG has now completed its first report and produced a set of recommendations intended to reduce the overall number of deaths and injuries resulting from falls from height. The report will be published at the Palace of Westminster in February 2019.