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PASMA, the not-for-profit organisation representing the international mobile access tower industry, is delighted to announce that the Association's managing director, Peter Bennett, 59, has been awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours List for his services to business in the access and work at height sector. Managing director of PASMA since 2006, Peter is also chair 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, the International Powered Access Federation. Comments PASMA chair, Gillian Rutter: "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 per cent compared with 1999/2000." Says Peter: "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, Peter 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. Peter is a founding member, and latterly chair, of the Access Industry Forum (AIF). Each of the eleven organisations comprising the Forum represents a different sector of the access industry and fosters and support codes of good practice, equipment standards, training, education and knowledge. He is also a founding trustee and current chair of the Board of Trustees of the No Falls Foundation, the first and only UK charity dedicated exclusively to preventing falls from height and objects falling from height. The Foundation aims to raise awareness of the risks associated with working at height, to undertake research to better understand the causes, and, finally, to provide support to those people affected by the life-changing consequences of a fall. Finally, since its creation in October 2017, Peter has been actively involved in the work of the All Party Parliamentary Group (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. Download press release here