International Safety Awards open for 2027 entries with new non-competitive progress award

The British Safety Council has opened entries for the 2027 International Safety Awards, adding a new non-competitive Safety Progress Award and a free-to-enter Innovation of a Decade category, with a submission deadline of 1 February 2027.

The Safety Progress Award launched on 12 October 2026 and, the British Safety Council said, recognises organisations making meaningful progress in health, safety and wellbeing. Unlike the main awards, it is non-competitive and assessed against a Safety Progress framework, and it can be entered by a whole organisation, business unit, site, region or defined project.

The free-to-enter programme gains Innovation of a Decade for 2027; eleven free categories were listed when the 2026 scheme opened. According to the scheme page, the new category recognises an outstanding project or initiative introduced during the past ten years. Free categories, which also include the Innovation in Health Award run with HSE's Prevention Programme, are open to all until 1 March 2027 and do not require a paid International Safety Award application.

Peter McGettrick, Chairman of the British Safety Council, said at the 2026 gala dinner: "We still can't guarantee that every worker will go home safely tonight."

How entries are judged

Applications to the main awards are made by site or business unit rather than by whole organisation, according to the British Safety Council's FAQ page. An adjudicator applies the marking scheme and awards a score out of 50, with results graded Distinction, Merit or Pass.

Applicants are also automatically considered for the Chief Adjudicator's Award, which goes to the highest-scoring application each year, and the Best in Company Award for organisations with 50 or more participating sites. A new individual award category, open only to International Safety Awards applicants, celebrates outstanding personal achievement.

The 2026 Chief Adjudicator's report offers practical pointers for construction firms preparing a submission. It said low scores in many cases resulted from an incomplete reading or misunderstanding of what was being sought, and warned that AI-generated or textbook answers will continue to be marked down. The report also said the 2026 question set will be comprehensively reviewed in preparation for the 2027 awards, and recommended that any organisation considering applying, whether previous or first-time, attends one of the council's webinars. The first application webinar is on 27 October 2026, with early bird pricing ending on 2 November 2026.

The 2026 results

In 2026, 851 organisations from 51 countries won an International Safety Award, the British Safety Council said, with significant representation from construction alongside manufacturing, oil, gas, mining, power and utilities. The scheme page says 95% of applicants achieved a Distinction, Merit or Pass. The scheme page records 885 applications for 2026, while the Chief Adjudicator's report gives the figure as 893.

Mike Robinson, Chief Executive of the British Safety Council, said: "It is our vision at the British Safety Council that no-one should be injured or made ill through their work".

The 2026 winners were recognised at a gala dinner on 19 June at Church House Conference Centre in London. The British Safety Council, which has 6,000 corporate members in more than 60 countries, said new eligibility criteria were introduced for the previous cycle.

What happens next

A second application webinar follows in January 2027 before the 1 February 2027 deadline for the International Safety Awards and the Safety Progress Awards. Results will be emailed to applicants on 19 March 2027, the winners' list published on 22 March 2027, and the free-to-enter shortlist announced in May 2027, ahead of the 2027 gala dinner in London in June 2027.