Reviewing investigation and enforcement

Investigation is the reactive work undertaken by the CA as a result of an incident or complaint at a COMAH establishment. The investigation may be concerned with issues related to COMAH, or another legislative regime or several regimes combined (Health and Safety at Work Act or Environmental Permitting Regulations).

The CA’s competence in investigation of incidents and dangerous occurrences, in particular the competence of investigators, is viewed as a real strength. Therefore, the way the CA conducts its investigations remains largely unchanged by the remodelling programme.

Importantly the Competent Authority will continue to ensure that for each significant COMAH incident an Investigation Manager will be appointed. The Investigation Manager will then ensure that the primary investigation team are sufficiently briefed and possess the appropriate capabilities, such as regulatory/enforcement skills and technical specialist skills.

Remodelled investigation

Incident at COMAH site	Within 5 days & periodic review	During first weeks Requires periodic (monthly) review	Early release of information Without delay when immediate action required
Initial alert CA exchange information for COMAH relevant incidents without delay Liaison between those who routinely inspect site.	Initial assessment Initial impact assessment record. EC reportable? Major accident? Routine or major incident investigation?	Management structure and oversight Form primary investigation team. Establish and implement terms of reference, objectives and delivery plan. CA SMG oversight of EC reportable and major incidents. Local management if routine.	Dissemination of causes, lessons and recommendations and reporting to Europe Safety alerts and bespoke reports Annual summary report analysing trends from routine investigations. Investigation data to inform future CA priorities
Investigation outcomes Collect and secure evidence. A full analysis of the incident (including causation and root causes). Consider actions for duty holders (enforcement) and other actions as necessary.

Changes to the way we approach Enforcement

Overall there will not be a major change to the way we enforce; and the limited changes we have remain consistent with current HSE, EA and SEPA policies.

However we have taken the opportunity offered by this review to look at the current CA Memorandum of Understanding and guidance and identify any areas where there is an unnecessary ‘demarcation’.

The aim of the changes to our working arrangements in this area is to encourage joint consideration and agreement on enforcement activity. This joint approach should be more efficient, improving joint working and more consistent regulation.

Key points in the approach are

• New CA policy and procedures, aim to foster joint working, not separate our activity as a CA.
• Ensure consistency of enforcement during all regulatory activity of assessment, investigation and inspection.
• Enforcement Management Model amended to be used as a tool to make CA decisions about recommended enforcement action - speed up agreement - saving time and effort.
• COMAH Manual guidance on COMAH prohibition notices updated and amended.
• Learning from Enforcement in the past – review of case studies to include in guidance to both CA staff and duty holders.

What will industry notice

There is no current driver to make significant changes to the way in which the CA approaches investigations. However, one key area was identified for improvement is the way that the CA disseminates the causes and lessons from incident investigation.

Here the changes will ensure early dissemination of causes and lessons from investigation and will make recommendations on future preventive measures. This will include identifying and transmitting without delay to duty holders and other appropriate recipients any information requiring immediate action to further safety and/or environmental protection.

Agreement to the use of Safety Alerts will be approved by senior members of the Competent Authority. Importantly, the release of early investigation findings will need to take account of what investigation findings can be released without prejudicing potential legal proceedings.

This forms part of a wider HSE project on safety alerts and bulletins.