Highways England (HE) has launched its supplier recognition scheme for 2015, giving its suppliers a chance to boost their profiles by putting themselves forward for a series of awards.

This is the first time the annual recognition scheme has been held under the new government-owned company, Highways England, which is delivering £11 billion of improvements over the next five years – improvements suppliers will help deliver.

More than 90 per cent of the work on England’s motorways and major A roads is carried out by the supply chain, and Highways England wants as many of them as possible to nominate themselves across eight key areas.

Suppliers in direct and indirect contact with Highways England, including through joint ventures and the extended supply chain, can put themselves forward for an award. Entries are open from today until 25 September.

Chair of the judging panel, Simon Diggle, said: "Suppliers who demonstrate they can deliver benefits in a leading, innovative or efficient way, deserve as much recognition as possible – this is why we run our award scheme.

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"I would urge them to take this unique opportunity, in the first year of Highways England, to put a marker down and show us they can be part of our five-year journey.

"We hope the certainty of a five-year funding cycle will enable them to plan ahead with confidence and develop the skills they need to deliver."

The eight key areas/categories of the scheme are:

• building capacity and capability

• customer experience

• communities (new)

• delivering sustainable value and solutions

• inclusion

• managing down cost/improving value

• safety, health and wellbeing, which includes:

• public/road user safety

• road worker safety

• occupational health and wellbeing

• supply chain management

Last year there were up to three winners in each category and small and medium enterprises took a quarter of the awards – a record since the scheme was set up five years ago.

SME Recycling Lives won an Inclusion award alongside EM Highways for an initiative which included helping two homeless people into employment.

Steven Jackson OBE of Recycling Lives, said: "Winning the award has helped profile our every-day work with vulnerable people and EM Highways’ positive approach to corporate social responsibility.

It was also heartening, in receiving the award, to be shown that this responsibility is endorsed by industry and we hope many others will follow suit.

Full guidance and entry forms can be found on the Highways England section of Gov.UK.