Producing guidance and giving information and advice contributes to the overall major hazard objective of minimising the risks and effects of major hazards. Specifically this activity:
This work stream relates to all advice and information provision (chargeable and non-chargeable) including response to official enquiries/briefings and guidance provision covering: response to enquiries from stakeholders, authoring and reviewing internal and external guidance; author support; guidance, maintenance/quality procedures, maintenance of HID's information base on Intranet and Internet.
A lot of the advice we give is an integral part of our front line regulatory work and is delivered mostly at the same time as planned inspection, investigation and assessment. The provision of advice follows a hierarchy of options, ie:
HID produces technical guidance in order to inform judgements during regulatory activities, for example, whether risks have been reduced so far as is reasonably practicable. HID works with stakeholders wherever possible to develop good practice guidance.
Response to official enquiries work is carried out in accordance with GAP 3.
Guidance production/review uses the outcome of operational intelligence, research and standards work, new legislation and liaison with stakeholders to develop, modify and improve operational procedures and guidance to duty holders and inspectors.
Approximately 14% of HID's total resource is put to this activity.
GSMR advice recovers approximately 500 per annum.
There is a high expectation on HSE to give advice. This improves our relationships with stakeholders and is an effective way of promoting key health and safety messages.
Advice to Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) on Land Use Planning (LUP) in the vicinity of major hazard establishments is carried out to fulfil HSE's statutory duty to advise LPAs on risk to proposed developments in the vicinity of hazardous installations. This work contributes to HSC strategic objective to minimise populations exposed to risk from major hazards.
The Minister has obligations to Parliament, as specified in the Ministerial Code:
"It is of paramount importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity. Ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation to the Prime Minister.
Ministers should be as open as possible with Parliament and the public, refusing to provide information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest, which should be decided in accordance with the relevant statutes and the Government's Code of Practice on Access to Government Information."
HID has a responsibility to help Ministers to fulfil these obligations.
Both HID's inspectors and the industries they regulate rely on authoritative and up to date guidance. Without maintenance and review, the quality and therefore usefulness of all published information would quickly decay. HID has robust systems in place to manage the quality of the information it publishes - both on the intranet, internet and hard copy.
This programme addresses all major hazard risks.
In a complex technical regulatory environment HID needs to maintain a high level of technical knowledge and reflect this in clear guidance, procedures and instructions. Stopping this work would result in a degradation and eventual stagnation of HID's regulatory programme.
The provision of advice is not mandatory, however to stop this activity would damage HID's reputation and we would lose a highly effective means of communication.
If we were to stop answering Parliamentary Questions, Official Correspondence and the preparation of briefings we would be unable to meet the Ministerial Code and would damage our stakeholder/public relationships.
Technical guidance will continue to be developed, especially in partnership with stakeholders, where there is a clear business need. Work will continue on publications which have been exempted from the current embargo.
HSE's website is heavily used and this usage is increasing. It is often the initial or frequently the main point of contact with HSE for many stakeholders. Development of industry and topic pages 'owned' and managed by HID is an area of increased activity.
None.
Approximately 85 staff years are directed to Guidance, Information and Advice for Major Hazards at an estimated cost of 4,445,450 (3,992,000 staff costs and 453,450 GAE).
For offshore and gas the cost of advisory work is fully recovered directly from duty holders.
Resources put to guidance production will be funded by HSE OSU.
HID's main stakeholders for this workstream are: Public, Industry, Ministers, HSC/E and Senior Managers.
Guidance is produced in accordance with 'Quality: Procedures for Authors of HID Guidance'.
The main performance indicator for official enquiry work is achieving ministerial confidence. Once a response has been sent, we should not be sent further questions we failed to answer initially.
HID is responsible for delivering this contribution to HSE's Core Programme. There is no single programme manager within HID. Heads of Division are responsible for delivery of their contributions to the HID programme. HID is not responsible for the production of guidance, this is managed by HSE OPU.
The programme detail is put together from HID's OG Core operating plan - resources are allocated to it at Unit level. The aggregation of this is shown above under resources and costs.
The outcome of the Back Office Review has meant guidance production has been centralised.