The Sheffield-based firm recently received accreditation from SAFEcontractor, a programme which recognises very high standards of health and safety practise amongst UK contractors. Employing 20 people, Russell Richardson is principally involved in the secure disposal and shredding of commercial information in compliance with the Data Protection Act.

The company’s application for SAFEcontractor accreditation was driven by the need for a uniform standard for health and safety across the business. Jonathan Richardson, managing director of Russell Richardson, comments: “Working in the secure shredding industry for over 33 years, it has always been our aim to achieve the highest levels of accreditations in particular with regards to our policies and procedures. Therefore, it seemed a natural progression to ensure that all our clients and employees were reassured that we can meet both the highest levels of health and safety as well as security.”
A founding member of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) Europe and The Security Alliance, Russell Richardson takes security seriously and adheres to strict standards set out in BS EN15713:2009, the European standard for the destruction of confidential information and operates to ISO9001:2008.

SAFEcontractor accreditation is expected to further enhance the company’s ability to attract new contracts and its commitment to safety will be viewed positively by its insurers when the company liability policy is up for renewal. Applicable to most sectors, SAFEcontractor is particularly relevant to property, facilities management, food manufacture, retail and leisure sectors, all of which are big users of contract services.

John Kinge, Head of Risk at SAFEcontractor said: "Major organisations can no longer run the risk of employing contractors who are not able to prove that they have sound health and safety policies.

"More companies need to understand the importance of adopting good risk management in the way that Russell Richardson has done. The firm’s high standard has set an example, which hopefully will be followed by other companies within the sector.”

Under the SAFEcontractor system, businesses undergo a vetting process, which examines health and safety procedures and their track record for safe practice. Those companies meeting the high standard are included on a database, which is accessible to registered users only via a website, www.safecontractor.com. Employer-organisations who sign up to the scheme can access the database, enabling them to vet potential contractors before they even set foot on site. These employers agree that, as users of the scheme, they will engage only those who have received accreditation.

Over one hundred and fifty major nation-wide businesses, from several key sectors, have signed up to use the scheme when selecting contractors for services such as building, cleaning, maintenance, refurbishment or electrical and mechanical work.
For further information on Russell Richardson and its secure approach to destruction, please visit www.russellrichardson.co.uk or call 0800 294 6552.
 

Designed to help businesses nationwide ensure their security measures remain one step ahead of any criminal activity, The Security Alliance was formed as a direct response to customer feedback for a specialist one-stop operation for security solutions. By providing access to security services that simultaneously reduce risk and manage costs, The Security Alliance acts as a central contact point for customers seeking high-level security and brings together specialists across the industry to meet requirements.

As a highly accredited secure shredding company, Russell Richardson will provide onsite and offsite commercial information destruction to ensure The Security Alliance customers are compliant with the Data Protection Act and help protect them from corporate and personal identity theft. Donal Keane part of the marketing team for The Security Alliance, comments: “Each Security Alliance partner has been handpicked according to strict criteria, not only are we looking for security-based companies that are specialists in their particular area but also companies that share our customer focused ethos.

“We believe that ensuring the safe and secure destruction of confidential information forms part of a company’s overall security remit. So to complete our full service offering, we required a secure information destruction company and as an independent business that is clearly dedicated to customer satisfaction, Russell Richardson more than fitted the bill.”
The Security Alliance comprises of 15 core partner businesses, each expert in its individual security discipline from cash handling, monitoring and IT security to car park management and manned security solutions. Dependent on customer requirements The Security Alliance is also able to draw on wider commercial partners in order to provide a ‘cradle to grave’ complete security solution.

Jonathan Richardson, managing director at Russell Richardson, concludes: “Becoming part of The Security Alliance is an important step forward for us to be recognised as a security-based business rather than waste management. Our security-led shredding services help to protect businesses against corporate espionage, identity theft and breaches of the Data Protection Act, which is why we always strive to be accredited to the highest possible level.”

A founding member of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) Europe, Russell Richardson adheres to the strict security standards set in BS EN15713:2009, the European standard for the destruction of confidential information and operates to ISO9001:2008.

For further information on Russell Richardson and its secure approach to destruction, please visit www.russellrichardson.co.uk or call 0800 294 6552. To find out more information on The Security Alliance, visit www.thesecurityalliance.info or call 0844 381 4611.

Here's Mike Cluskey, our Sales Director at Procurex 2012 at the NEC Birmingham.

We have taken a small stand again this year to promote our secure shredding business. Mike will be talking to prospective clients about the various aspects of our service including mobile shredding, off site shredding and hard drive shredding. Hopefully we will have our new truck soon, a first in the UK, which will house both a high security shredder which will shred down to 6mm AND a seperate hard drive shredder which will have the capability to reduce hard drives down to 2mm. 

Posted by: Jonathan Richardson 

Russell Richardson currently provides an onsite secure document destruction, shredding and recycling service to Engineering & Welding Supplies’ Sutton in Ashfield site but this will be extended to cover a further eight of the group’s sites over the next few months. With an extensive network of distribution centres in the North of England, the East and West Midlands as well as West Yorkshire, Engineering & Welding Supplies is the UK’s largest independent welding distributor. As a result it handles confidential customer information across the entire company on a daily basis and requires a robust and secure document destruction procedure in place.

In the past each individual branch has dealt with the disposal of confidential documents and information at a local level, however, Russell Richardson will provide a single source agreement that includes all eight locations. Tommy Dowle, operation manager at Engineering & Welding Supplies, comments: “We take the protection of our customers’ confidential information extremely seriously and in the past each branch has contracted an individual supplier. However, in line with ISO4001 quality assurance we were keen to further accommodate recycling and Russell Richardson went above and beyond proposing a secure shredding service that helped us to achieve a greater level of recycling.
“Furthermore, as a large independent firm we like to support other independent companies and the level of customer service received from Russell Richardson to date has been second to none.”

A founding member of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) Europe, The Shredding Alliance and The Security Alliance, Russell Richardson takes security seriously and adheres to strict standards set out in BS EN15713:2009, the European standard for the destruction of confidential information and operates to ISO9001:2008.
Jonathan Richardson, managing director, Russell Richardson, comments: “We have delivered a service to the Sutton in Ashfield branch of Engineering & Welding for well over a year now and are extremely pleased that they have decided to extend our contract to include a further eight branches. As we are an owner managed business we can provide our clients complete flexibility and control with the shredding and recycling services that we offer.”

For further information on Russell Richardson and its secure approach to destruction, please visit www.russellrichardson.co.uk or call 0800 294 6552.
 

Download the whitepaper now.

The second one is on data protection:

Posted by: Jonathan Richardson