The Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) is pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the 2026 Biennial Health and Safety Conference, held on July 6-7, 2026, at the Chesford Grange Hotel in Kenilworth.
The conference brought together delegates from all operational levels within the industry, which focused on going “beyond simple compliance” as important as it is, to driving forward the strategic health and safety goals established under the Paper and Board Industry Advisory Committee (PABIAC) strategy.
With a strong programme of expert speakers, alongside sponsors and exhibitors showcasing the latest developments in health and safety, the conference offered valuable insights and practical learning opportunities for delegates from across the UK’s Paper-based Industries.
Proceedings began on Monday evening with a networking reception and BBQ, kindly sponsored by XACTX Group. The relaxed setting provided delegates with an opportunity to meet and network ahead of the main conference programme.
Tuesday’s conference, sponsored by AI-T3CH and Reece Safety Products, began with Elizabeth Hyde of Hesper GRC, who delivered an outstanding keynote address titled "From Silence to Safety: psychological safety and accident prevention." Elizabeth emphasised the critical link between open workplace communication, and psychological safety, and reinforced the PABIAC message that effective leadership, engagement, and collaboration are crucial for achieving safety success.
This message was powerfully brought home when, following Elizabeth's presentation, delegates heard from Maria Dennis. Following the tragic loss of her 11-year-old son, Harry, due to an unsecure transport load, Maria delivered a deeply moving and hard-hitting reminder of the real-world human consequences tied to everyday safety compliance. Her address underscored load security as a safety critical task, urging the sector to look beyond machinery safeguards and to critically review the transportation of the products we make and load security operations.
Delegates then took part in a series of workshop and breakout sessions exploring key health and safety topics relevant to the PABIAC strategy. Discussions covered a range of issues, including Human error and safety critical tasks, mental health and wellbeing, measuring performance and load security. The sessions provided valuable insights and shared learning, giving attendees ideas and approaches they could take back to their own organisations.
Matt Lindley, a commercial airline captain and former RAF Royal Squadron pilot, took the stage for his highly anticipated plenary session. Matt captivated the audience with deep insights from aviation safety systems, demonstrating how human factors, leadership dynamics, and continuous learning cultures can be directly translated to heavy industry to mitigate human error and optimise team performance under pressure.
In his closing address, David Richardson, CPI President, thanked everyone for making this year’s event such a success and committed CPI to working alongside the industry to implement these vital insights and drive step-change safety improvements.
CPI Director of Health and Safety Andrew Braund said: "In the 25 years of organising this event, I have had the honour of working with some truly outstanding professionals in the field. This year's event was the best yet, a sentiment echoed by delegates throughout the day.
He added:
"The UK’s Paper-based Industries have come a long way. Watching delegates listen intently to our speakers and hearing conversations about human error, psychological safety, safety-critical tasks, load security, leadership, communication, and mental health and wellbeing really brought home how far we have come.”
ENDS
For further information contact Elisse Hare ([email protected]).
Notes for Editors
The Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) is the leading trade association representing the UK’s Paper-based Industries, comprising paper and board manufacturers and converters, corrugated packaging producers, makers of soft tissue papers, and collectors of paper for recycling.
CPI represents an industry with an aggregate annual turnover of £15 billion, with 50,000 direct and a further 59,000 indirect employees.
PABIAC: Formed in 1979, the Paper and Board Industry Advisory Committee (PABIAC) is the tripartite strategic health and safety delivery partnership for the paper, board and recovered paper industries. The partnership is HSE, employers and Trade Unions. The current strategy can be viewed here.