Phil Russell, FMB’s national Health & Safety representative, has been awarded an MBE for services to Health & Safety in the Construction Industry.

Phil, who founded his Tyne & Wear refurbishment business, Russell Building Services in 1977, has been an FMB member for 25 years. For the last ten years he has represented FMB at a national level on a number of Health & Safety committees including CONIAC, CSCS and the Small Business Trade Association Forum. He was also a member of the Workers Safety Advisor (WSA) Challenge Fund, a successful initiative to promote and administer worker safety representatives in small building firms. In January 2007, Phil was appointed director of Construction Better Health.


Commenting on his MBE, Phil said: “I was surprised and delighted to receive this Award. While it is a personal honour, it also recognises the importance of health and safety in construction. This has been a prime concern for me throughout my career in the industry, and it is vital that we all continue to work to towards ever higher standards of health and safety on construction sites.”

FMB National President, Geoff Lister, added his congratulations: “It is very appropriate that Phil’s time and effort has been rewarded in an area that is so important to the industry at the present time. The FMB is extremely fortunate that it has someone like Phil leading our involvement on the health and safety front.”

(CD)