Who We Are
The Confined Space Rescue Trade Association (CSRTA) exists to raise the standard of confined space working, rescue capability, and operational safety across the United Kingdom.
Formed by experienced industry practitioners, CSRTA unites rescue teams, employers, trainers, assessors, and safety professionals who share a common commitment: creating a safer, more competent, and better-supported confined space workforce.
As a member-owned, not-for-profit organisation, every pound generated by CSRTA is reinvested directly into improving the confined space industry and the people who work within it. All profits support the development of training pathways, guidance materials, operational standards, and welfare initiatives designed to strengthen the competence and safety of frontline operatives, team leaders, managers, and rescue personnel.
CSRTA works alongside industry partners and fully supports and endorses all awarding organisations that provide accredited confined space qualifications. These qualifications form the backbone of safe practice in the UK, and CSRTA builds upon them with enhanced, practical, industry-led modules that refine and extend operational capability.
Our structured development pathways guide individuals from foundational knowledge through advanced rescue and leadership roles, while remaining fully aligned with legislation, the L101 ACOP, and National Occupational Standards.
Beyond training, we offer specialist guidance, investigative insight, incident-learning resources, and a collaborative platform where organisations can share experience and continuously improve.
CSRTA is here to support everyone involved in confined space work, whether operational, supervisory, managerial, or strategic, by elevating professionalism, consistency, and practical safety across the industry.
Together, we are raising the standard of confined space work across the UK, responsibly and collaboratively, for the benefit of every person who enters or manages a confined space.
Pete Steele
Founder of CSRTA
Pete Steele is the founder of the Confined Space Rescue Trade Association (CSRTA) and a long-standing advocate for evidence-based practice within the UK confined space industry.
With extensive practical experience spanning confined space operations, working at height, IRATA, rescue, management, and appointed-person roles, Pete has worked in some of the highest-risk environments in the sector, both onshore and offshore. His professional background includes the delivery and development of accredited qualifications, assessment, internal and external quality assurance, and senior oversight of training standards.
Pete holds a broad range of recognised credentials, including QTS, QTLS, Cert Ed, CAVA, IQA, Lead IQA, EQA, NEBOSH, SMSTS, Tech IOSH, PRINCE2, the full City & Guilds 6160 suite, FREC 3, CCNSG, and more.
Pete's career also includes experience in the emergency services, working alongside the Fire, Police, and HART teams, as well as government-funded, specialist projects supporting both civil and military aviation, including crowd risk mitigation in firearms incidents. This has provided him with real-world operational insight into safety systems, decision-making under pressure, and the critical importance of competence beyond the classroom.
Pete has also worked internationally across Europe, North Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania, including offshore operations, giving him a clear, informed perspective on how standards, training quality, and rescue arrangements vary and where they fall short.
CSRTA was established to address a growing concern: that confined space training and rescue arrangements were increasingly being shaped in the classroom by subjective interpretation rather than factual legislation, approved codes of practice, and proven operational reality. Pete founded CSRTA to promote accuracy, consistency, and credibility by fully supporting accredited qualifications, strengthening competence, and representing all roles across the confined space industry.
His focus remains clear: to raise standards, challenge complacency, and support organisations and individuals in building safer, compliant, and genuinely effective confined space operations.
Adam Barrett
Managing Director and owner of ResQsupport
Adam Barrett Dip SR, AREMT-P is the Managing Director and owner of ResQsupport, bringing extensive operational, leadership, and training expertise across emergency response, medical services, and hostile environments.
Adam began his career serving in reconnaissance roles on multiple international deployments with the British Armed Forces. He subsequently joined the fire service, where he was responsible for the training and development of award-winning medical and rescue specialist teams. During this period, he also authored frontline medical response training materials and co-responding strategies used to enhance operational effectiveness.
Following his fire service career, Adam trained and qualified as an Australasian Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (AREMT) Paramedic and Remote Paramedic. He has since worked extensively as a close protection operator, paramedic, and medical consultant in high-risk and austere environments, including Somalia, Iraq, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Brunei, Malaysia, and Libya. His roles have encompassed hostile environment operations, medical consultancy, and senior operational support.
In addition to his primary operational responsibilities, Adam has trained local national first responders, designed and implemented medical emergency response plans, and coordinated the repatriation of personnel following injury or illness in hostile environments.
Adam is also the Managing Director of 40 North UK, a confined space and specialist rescue training company based in Durham, North-East England. Through 40 North UK, Adam and his team have contributed to the design and delivery of numerous CSRTA development programmes, supporting the advancement of specialist rescue capability across the sector.
Danny Howard
Owner of ResTech Services Ltd
ResTech Services Ltd are a multi-skilled, professional technical rescue organisation leading in the field of Confined Space and Water Rescue.
Bringing nearly
2 decades of experience to the market, through my time in the UK Emergency Services I am passionate about promoting the safety and recovery of those working in hazardous environments across the UK engineering and construction industries.
Phil Turner
Technial Rescue Lead at Role 1 Medical & Rescue CIC
As Technical Rescue Lead for Role 1 Medical & Rescue CIC, Phil specialises in delivering pre-hospital care in austere and high-risk environments. He is an experienced trainer with a particular interest in enhancing the medical skills of industrial rescue teams through bespoke, simulation-focused training. Outside of work, Phil volunteers as a member of a mountain rescue team, as a hill party leader, a rope and mine rescue team member and a swiftwater rescue technician.
As a member of the CSRTA Steering Group, Phil has had particular input into the development of the First Responder module.
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