<b></b><p></p><p><b><b>Simon Mantle, manager of NHBC health &amp;&amp; safety services, discusses the first follow-up conference to John Prescott&amp;’s health and safety summit which was held earlier this year</b></b><br><b>In February deputy prime minister John Prescott summoned the construction industry to a health and safety summit and called on all parties to deliver tough new safety targets to cut deaths, injuries and ill-heath in the sector.</b><br>In a drive to maintain the momentum created by the conference, a follow-up event was held last month at ExCel in London&amp;’s Docklands. </p><p>The Revitalising Health and Safety in Construction conference heard that not enough action was yet being taken to ease the health and safety problem, and that the industry, in trying to achieve higher standards, needs to remember the three Rs - recruitment, retention and respect.</p><p> The human cost</p><p>Last February&amp;’s summit confronted us with the human face of the statistics we all too often accept as an inevitable consequence of working in the construction industry. Delegates saw video footage and heard chilling testimony from a number of people who could no longer continue with their lives in a normal way. All of those who gave testimony had one thing in common - they were suffering the …