Sandwell Leisure Trust has been awarded the highest possible accolade in the internationally-renowned Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents Health and Safety Awards 2021.

The Black Country-based company has landed the coveted Order of Distinction (for 15 consecutive annual Gold Awards) and is the only Leisure Trust nationwide to ever achieve this distinction.

Gold Awards are awarded for superior health and safety performance and excellence among companies that primarily offer services direct to guests and visitors – and this latest and 15th continuous accolade is for the period of January 01, 2020, to December 31, 2020. Ash Rai, Chief Executive for SLT, said:

“It’s a massive achievement to be consistently successful in the toughest health and safety competition in the world. This is fantastic news and testament to the team’s sterling efforts across all the Trust’s facilities over the past year – especially in these most challenging of circumstances.

"Maintaining the highest standards of health and safety continues to be an absolute priority for the Trust. This achievement again underlines the expertise and hard work of our teams to have safe and proper practices in place and also provide a COVID-secure environment for staff, customers and visitors across all our sites.”

Because of the current social gathering restrictions, SLT will receive their awards by post in August, with a live virtual awards ceremony held in early September, hosted by broadcaster Ed James, RoSPA President Baroness Jolly and RoSPA chief executive, Errol Taylor. Julia Small, RoSPA’s achievements director, added:

“RoSPA is very proud of the achievements of its winners and with this award we recognise the best of the best, organisations that have gone the extra mile, raising the bar for the delivery of safety in the workplace.

"By entering they are driving up standards and setting new safety benchmarks for organisations across the world.”