Chemical and Downstream Oil Industries Forum (CDOIF) - Meeting 19th October 2005
10/05 Mins
Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday, 19th October 2005 Room 1102 Daniel House, Bootle
Present:
| Chair: | Kevin Allars | HSE, CI |
|---|---|---|
| Secretariat: | Keith Morris | HSE, HID CI4 |
| Members: |
Alex Radway |
EA EA UKPIA CIA (Huntsman) BCDTA TSA (Simstor) BCF |
| HSE staff: |
Karen Clayton |
HID CI5 |
| Observers: | Clive Tayler | EEMUA |
| Minutes Secretary: | Colette Fitzpatrick | HID CI4 |
NB members will be sent, along with these minutes, electronic copies of the following PowerPoint presentation made during this meeting:
1. Welcome and introduction and opening remarks
1.1. Kevin welcomed everyone to the meeting. He mentioned that this would be Keith Morris’ last meeting as Secretary as he was moving off for 12 months to take forward work on the review of SRAM. Tony Killen would be taking over as Secretary. Kevin introduced Colin Harris, who is head of a new team in HID CI4 working on strategy, and who would be discussing his work on the strategy project under item 8; Gerry Adderley, who would be updating on COMAH under item 6; and Ian Travers and Viki Beckett who would be making a presentation on ‘Loss of Containment’ issues under item 5.
1.2 Kevin also introduced Alex Radway and Richard Clarke who are now representing EA following the retirement of Ian Haskell; and John Galbraith who is here on behalf of CIA following Tony Watkins’ retirement.
1.3 Kevin mentioned that Philip Lewis from CIA had now retired and David Campbell has taken over responsibility for the health remit. David does not intend to attend CDOIF meetings but would be copied into all correspondence.
1.4 Kevin also mentioned that Andrew Hitchings, EA, has now changed jobs and is no longer a CDOIF member.
1.5 Clive Taylor, from EEMUA, was again attending as an observer.
2. Apologies
Apologies were received from Nick Berentzen, CIA, Mike Murray, ABPI, Dr Hugh Bray, TSA, Doug Russell, USDAW, Ian McPherson, UKPIA, Jeff Watson, LPGA, Roger Alesbury, BP, Mark Scanlon, EI and Ron Wood, TGWU. Kevin said he would write to the TUs in order to further encourage regular attendance at these meetings.
Action Point 2: Kevin to write to all TU reps. to encourage regular attendance.
3. Minutes and action points
3.1 There were no amendments to the minutes of the meeting held on 29 June 2005, and all bar one action point from the meeting had been discharged.
3.2. A/P 4.3 – John Murray had raised the auditing of lower-tier multi-site COMAH companies at last week’s meeting of the CA steering committee, and would be reporting back in due course.
There were no matters arising.
4 Members' issues
4.1 Doug Leech reported on a meeting held at the end of last month to finalise the text for the guidance on the storage of flammable liquids within IBCs. The final report is now out and a draft will be sent to Clive Dennis at HSE at the end of this month for comment. It will then be more widely distributed to industry for comment. The final guidance should be available early next year.
4.2 Doug had attended the recent CCA meeting in Buxton, during which there was a demonstration by Graham Atkinson, from the Fire Safety Unit at the Health and Safety Laboratory, of the impact of fire on IBCs, which was very impressive and got the message across to CCA members of the potential damage this can cause.
5 Loss of containment programme - Findings from the first 12 months
5.1 Viki Beckett and Ian Travers presented the results of the first 12 months reporting on voluntary loss of containment and the main failings within process safety management systems, followed by a discussion on how to take the project forward. See separate file for copies of slides.
5.2 Viki explained how the information was collated and that the project was set up for this specific purpose. Viki set out separately the findings from chemical incidents, and from refinery incidents.
5.3 Kevin said there had been some concern about collecting this information and assured members that the information is not retained by HSE once collated, and is completely anonymised.
5.4 CIA and UKPIA representatives agreed to target their members to try and get more responses.
5.5 Ian said this is the first time companies have been asked to provide this information and it is only one year’s data but when compared to the work that HSL has done he felt that it had targeted the right areas and has provided more information on where things are going wrong.
5.6 Clive Tayler explained briefly how similar information is collated from members of the Engineering Equipment and Material Users’ Association (EEMUA) and entered on their database.
5.7 Ian reported that they had involved UKPIA, CIA and BCDTA in the project and had talked to the Coatings Association and the Scottish Whisky Association. Following discussions with CIA it was hoped that their members would report directly to them and that they would collect this information. It is hoped that all TAs would follow this route and Ian offered support to individual TAs where necessary. Ian would welcome views from all on how to carry this work forward.
5.8 Ian said that the report on lessons learnt would be put on the HSE website and that members will be given time to look at the report and give feedback.
5.9 Members found the results of the report very encouraging. Martyn Lyons suggested taking this to the Chemical Distributors’ Institute as they have developed a comprehensive and prescriptive questionnaire for audits which might prove useful.
Action point 5.9: Ian agreed to get contact a CDI name from Martyn.
5.10 Kevin said this was true partnership work and encouraged everyone to get involved. There were some good messages to take forward to member firms from this meeting. He asked that any further comments be sent to Viki via e-mail (viki.beckett@hse.gsi.gov.uk)
6 Major hazards - COMAH
6.1 Gerry Adderley reported on the recent changes to the COMAH Regulations which came into effect on 30 June, and which introduced new items into COMAH. He circulated a table showing the unexpectedly small number of companies which have contacted HSE since June. He explained that notifications are still coming in but more slowly than expected. Some companies had elected to reduce their inventories in order to keep them below the COMAH threshold.
6.2 Kevin asked for suggestions from members on how to help companies to notify us. He agreed to go to the TAs with current information and use their membership to get the message across. He said we now have a number of Regulatory Compliance Officers who could engage with companies that fall within the sub-COMAH category.
6.3 Gerry commented that the information does not include notifications which are coming in under the changes to the CHIP Classification (Amendment) Regulations at the end of October. This issue would be taken up with John Murray in HID CI4.
6.4 There were some implications in the COMAH regulations for toxic substances, ie chromium trioxide now moves from ‘toxic’ into the ‘very toxic’ category. There has been an argument from Airbus on the application of COMAH to chromic acid. This issue was raised at the CCA meeting last week and a decision will be taken by the end of November as to whether this applies. A large number of companies may be caught up by this and a ‘Surface Treatment and COMAH awareness day’ will be held on 8 December 2005 in Worcester to provide more detailed guidance to operators.
6.5 Members will be alerted when the new information is available on CHIP. Martyn Lyons asked if the amendments to the Seveso regulations had been completed. Kevin replied that he would check on this and report back.
6.6 Members will be alerted when the new information is available on CHIP. Martyn Lyons asked if the amendments to the Seveso regulations had been completed. Kevin replied that he would check on this and report back.
Action point 6.6: Kevin to report back on amended Seveso regs.
6.7 Bill Mayes asked if we could foresee any major changes in TT sites reporting over the next 5 years. Kevin replied that although the COMAH safety reports should be up to date, he realised this was not the case and HSE were taking a pragmatic approach to this. We would not expect everything to be up to date immediately.
6.8 Gerry reported that the L111 guidance would be available at the end of November and there would be a further notification period of three months.
6.9 Keith Morris then reported on the work he is doing on the SRAM revision. A project board has been set up which involves CIA. HSE could expect a lot of new COMAH safety reports as it is 5 years since the first reports came in. We would looking at the assessment process, which is currently taking a lot longer than it ought to, and at the information we want from dutyholders. We will be setting higher timescales for the completion of reports. There was a need for ‘fit for purpose’ and proportionality to be linked better into this process. CIA are involved in the SRAM work in order to get industry on board early in the process.
6.10 Kevin said a lot of this work is being driven following the stakeholder conference in March this year. He said the charging would be looked at again next year because of the way it is done and the lack of transparency and we would be re-exploring the idea of having a levy system. This would be a long-term project and will run until 2007/08 as a parallel process. Kevin reminded members that he chaired the COMAH Charging Review Group, which is a long term project, and would need to get EA and SEPA involved in this. He also re-iterated that the emphasis within the review would lie on the process involved, rather than on the regulations themselves.
7 Review of Stake Holder Conference
7.1 Kevin gave a progress report on the action taken by members. Under ‘what has gone well’ Kevin reported that CDOIF was seen as a good forum and there has been a lot more interaction with CIA/EA/SEPA. CEMAP has now been disbanded and the work of CEMAP has become part of the DTI-led Chemical Regulation Forum. Work was continuing to accommodate HSE’s gradual withdrawal from its past guidance and standards-setting role. Wayne Smith referred to the PSPI project as a good example of the new ways of collaborative working, and Kevin said he would keep members up to date on what we are doing.
7.2 On ‘what has not gone so well’ Kevin recognised that COMAH charging needs to be addressed. Also more work is needed on the chlorine audit. A meeting has been held with the chlorine companies and they have welcomed what we have done and asked for information on good practice and advice – this would be published shortly.
7.3 On ‘working with others’, ie with TUs, safety reps and Responsible Care Cells (RCCs), we had a meeting with CIA on 13 October to review the state of RCCs. There was an agreed commitment to try to improve things and get TUs more involved in order to gain greater consistency.
7.4 On health – we will try to keep you up to date with where we are at on the health side.
7.5 On future challenges – again we are encouraging TAs to meet with us on this. Lord Hunt recently visited a UKPIA company and the issue of ‘gold plating’ on EU directives was raised, which we will take forward. We have also been looking at exchange opportunities with the EA etc. We are also looking at how we communicate better, ie on terminology, such as R2P2 (Reducing Risks, Protecting People).
7.6 Kevin then reported back on the working groups set up by HID CI.
7.6.1 COMAH Safety Report management – this was led by John Sumner, who has now produced a project report and which has now been closed.
7.6.2 Competency of Inspectors – this project is looking at how we can train our specialist inspectors and also at how to develop our admin teams.
7.6.3 Responsible Care Cells – we are continuing discussions with CIA and will take forward with an RCC on a local project.
7.6.4 Use of Intervention Plans – a team has been set up to look at policy proposals on earned autonomy, which includes Martyn Lyons and CIA representation. A template has been put together which will be trialled around various companies to see if data can be used to see where best to put the regulatory resource. A report is due back on this pilot in December which will indicate if this is something to take forward next year. TUs were involved in the first instance and raised concerns about inspector involvement on sites being reduced. We will look at how this fits in with the Lead Unit system we currently have.
7.7 John Galbraith mentioned the issue of contractor safety which was raised at the conference. He said CIA supports the idea of a passport scheme and would be happy to be involved in this work. Kevin replied that issues surrounding contractors were important not just for CI, but also for our colleagues Offshore. The issue would be raised at a forthcoming meeting on Friday of this week.
7.8 Kevin agreed to update the table of projects and issue to CDOIF members, following which there would need to be some further input from members.
Action point 7.8: Kevin to update progress table and forward to CDOIF members
7.9 Bill Mayes requested a copy of the chlorine audit report. Colin said this had gone out to industry and he would send information to members in the next few weeks.
Action point 7.9: Colin to send copies of chlorine audit to members
7.10 Clive Tayler commented that competences, guidance and standards were the 3 main areas of concern.
8 HSE Chemical Industries Health And Safety Strategy To 2011
8.1 Kevin reported that HID CI had had a meeting of all senior managers on 10/11 October to discuss strategy and have agreed a few things to take forward within the workplan for 2005/06.
8.2 Colin gave a brief account of the meeting, attended by 40+ staff, with the aim of getting input from all. We wanted to align what we do with ‘2005 and beyond’ and HSE’s ‘FIT3’ programme. The key drivers are the overall PSA targets which apply to all parts of HSE. Within HID/CI, the focus would be on HID’s 5 major hazard themes, namely: loss of containment; human performance and human error; emergency response; ageing plant and technology; and safety and management issues. The strategy gathers all of these together and we will develop protocols to support these themes.
8.3 Time and resource has been allocated against this work with 3 key goals to achieve, namely KG1 – prevent major accidents; KG2 – limit the consequences of potential major accident hazards; and KG3 – improve the health and safety of people.
8.4 We propose to set up some new groups, eg on chlorine, and to share information with our stakeholders.
8.5 We have consulted on the strategy and have taken comments. A timetable has been developed and we aim to get the proposed strategy out to our people in November and a shortened version out to all CDOIF members in the new year.
8.6 Kevin summed up saying that this strategy will drive our programme for the next 5 years as a rolling programme. He asked members to send back their comments once they have seen the paper.
8.7 Alex Radway reported that EA are developing ‘Sector Plans’ to agree some goals and performance to measure which will lead to some agreed targets; invariably there will be some tie-in with HSE. Sector plans are to be launched on 14 November as discussion documents for the chemical sector as a whole.
9 Safety issues
9.1 Tony Killen updated members on the latest ‘slips and trips’ campaign. The campaign “Watch Your Step” is running initially between 3-28 October and is targeted principally at the catering, commercial, engineering and construction sectors, and as with the earlier Backs! Campaign, it was not proposed that CI inspectors would be involved in a programme of visits specific to this campaign.
9.2 Although a briefing session for the chemical sector at Rose Court on 28 September had had to be cancelled as under-subscribed, it was nonetheless hoped that CDOIF members might wish to consider staging events in support of the campaign which would continue beyond the publicised phase and into the New Year. Campaign news, details of events, case studies and access to elements such as the Slips Assessment Tool could be gained via the dedicated website at: (http://www.hse.gov.uk/watchyourstep/index.htm).
9.3 Tony is happy to assist in any way with the preparation of any events in support of the campaign. (e.g., subsequent to meeting: agreed with Doug Leech for HSE speaker to address two of BCDTA’s Responsible Care meetings in 2006).
10 Incidents/events
10.1 Keith Morris then referred to a number of events of particular interest to CDOIF members since the last meeting in June. These included:
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In 1999 4 people lost their lives following a gas explosion at a house in Larkhall, Lanarkshire. In February this year, following a long investigation and a number of appeals, Transco were prosecuted and fined a total of £15m, which is the biggest fine handed down so far for a health and safety offence. Key message from this case is that companies need to keep accurate, up to date records.
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Following the explosion at the BP Texas City oil refinery in USA on 23 March 2005, which left 15 people dead and 170 injured, BP have been included on an American list of poor performers and put on a national watch list. There have been a series of other incidents, before and since March 2005, involving process fires and loss of containment. BP issued a statement on 22 September and said they had hired a new process safety expert and were upgrading health and safety training of all workers. They were also moving non-essential workers out of the refinery areas.
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Conoco received a final penalty of £895k, with costs of £218k, following 2 incidents – one on 16 April 2001 involving an LPG leak which led to an explosion, and one on 27 September 2001 involving a leak of LPG from a road tanker. There are 4 lessons to be learnt from this case, namely (i) Conoco did not have a good system of inspection of pipework; (ii) good system of management of change is needed on design and assessment of installation; (iii) there was a poor system for managing the prevention of corrosion; (iv) communication and, once again, record-keeping failures were also a contributing factor. HSE will be publishing a report on its website next month. We will notify members with the link to this report when available.
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Action point 10.1: Secretariat to update members when appropriate Bill Mayes made the point that the incidence of corrosion could be very localised, and that the quality or otherwise of the crude oil was a very significant factor.
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Case brought against Colas by FOD Construction Group resulted in a fine of £97k following a fatal injury at Grantham, Lincs. on 29 February 2003 when vapour was ignited as a bitumen tank was being cleaned with a mixture of kerosene and toluene. The cause was likely to prove to have been static electricity – Martin Lyons commented that kerosene was particularly prone to ignite from static.
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Shell have been fined £100k with £20k costs following the explosion of a road tanker containing toluene.
11 Information items
11.1 Keith then flagged up some brief information items to the meeting:
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A new service, Workplace Health Connect, was announced by the Minister for Work and Pensions on 19 October. It will provide a national telephone advice line about health and safety issues, offering problem solving workplace visits staffed by suitably qualified advisors. The service, which is aimed principally at SMEs, is currently being trialled and there will be further and wider development in Spring 2006. Some further information on the service might be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacehealth/
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HSE and the Engineering Employers Federation were currently hosting a series of nationwide roadshows to publicise changes in the regulations governing noise and vibration in the workplace.
11.2 Clive Tayler said the EEMUA was currently speaking to Chris Keen of HSL with regard to carcinogens within close sampling systems, and had been preparing guidance on RBI over the last year. The were also due to re-instigate next year liaison with HSE over containment issues, and that work they had been undertaking on tank maintenance had expanded into alarm systems for petrol forecourts and within the water industry.
12 AOB/Next meeting
12.1 Nothing under AOB. Dates for meetings in 2006 were provisionally set for 1 March (Rose Court), 14 June (Bootle – hopefully Redgrave Court by then!) and 11 October (Rose Court). Bill Mayes said he hoped that the meetings away from London would continue to be held in Bootle as this gave added opportunity for staff from other parts of HID or HSE to attend and contribute to CDOIF.
The meeting closed at 14.05.
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