British Steel’s pledge to customers and suppliers endorsed by prestigious quality award

British Steel senior management and some of those involved in the LRQA audits accepting the accreditation certificate from (centre) LRQA’s David Derrick and Kara Purves.

BRITISH Steel’s employees have been described as ‘a credit to the business’ after helping the company become one of a small number of UK firms to achieve a prestigious quality mark.

The company has been awarded International Standard ISO 9001:2015, Quality Management Systems after 29 days of external assessment by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA).

The updated ISO 9001:2015 standard is the best practice quality management framework and supports British Steel’s commitment to providing a high level of customer satisfaction.  

To satisfy the rigours of the audit, British Steel had to demonstrate having an effective quality management system compliant with all sections of the updated standard.

British Steel is in the first 6% of LRQA’s UK clients to transition to the 2015 standard.

Chris Kent, LRQA Lead Assessor, said: “I acknowledge the significant effort and commitment that has had to be demonstrated across the organisation to achieve this. The leadership commitment and awareness demonstrated was some of the best the assessment team has come across and the help, attitude, cooperation and enthusiasm from the workforce is a credit to the business.”

Paul Martin, British Steel Managing Director, said: “Well done to all those involved in this assessment. This is great news for us and will provide assurances to our customers and suppliers about our commitment to put our stakeholders first.

“We must ensure that we make quality part of our DNA as an organisation. We acknowledge that although we have received this recommendation there is no room for complacency and we must continually improve as a business.”

Paul Smith, British Steel’s Business Quality Assurance Manager, added: “This has been a massive undertaking for the company and lots of people throughout the organisation have contributed to this successful outcome.”