This covers work carried out both by HID's Operational Intelligence Section and the CTGs, together with Operational Policy and Business Support units in HID. The operational intelligence team provide data analysis in support of HID's operational policy, enabling HID to determine its impact, where the key risks and pressure points are and so on. The CTGs are involved in horizon scanning work covering a wide range of technical areas across HSE. Strategic and operational decisions across all workblocks are informed by these intelligence/information gathering and analysis functions, ensuring better targeted and effective allocation of resource. This programme permeates all of our major objectives.
The business/operational policy teams, in order to maintain operational effectiveness and secure HSE's reputation must be responsive to the constant process of change and development in the industries/sectors for which we have responsibility.
Horizon Scanning and Impact Analysis activities ensure that HID's resources are targeted effectively and the impact of our activities in key operational areas is scrutinised. We use a variety of intelligence sources (various management information/IT systems) to underpin this work, analysing core information and implementing supporting/supplementary intelligence gathering mechanisms. We react to operational incidents, changes in our stakeholder constituency and their operations/processes, and maintain both an operational and strategic relationship with them. This ensures that emerging issues with the potential to impact our programmes or augment/present new H & S risks (and this can include a wide range of work/life changes) are identified, considered and addressed. It includes a good deal of inter-unit, intra-dd and stakeholder consultation and intelligence sharing.
Approximately 1.75% of our total staff resources are put to this work activity.
We must maintain the capacity for forward looking to ensure we remain responsive to change in the industries we regulate. Failure to do so compromises our ability to deliver an effective regulatory and advisory function, threatens our reputation among our stakeholders and the public and undermines confidence in our ability to discharge our functions.
We also, through this activity help to ensure that the skills and experience of staff are appropriate to current and emerging demands, and are directed in the most effective and efficient manner. Acquiring, maintaining and developing appropriate skills involve long-term planning informed by effective trend analysis.
Horizon scanning is a key element in meeting the Cabinet Office agenda for managing risk more effectively across government.
Impact analysis is a relatively new programme element intended to provide us with a more structured evidential approach to the effectiveness of key programme delivery. It reflects the increasing emphasis on justification of activities by measurement of outcomes.
That as an organisation we remain inflexible, unresponsive, and out of touch with the industries we regulate.
That our reputation with stakeholders and the public, as the authoritative H & S body, is compromised.
That our resources are unfit for purpose and inadequately or inappropriately allocated.
That development of a regulatory/intervention strategy is compromised.
That delivery of our core programmes is compromised as a result.
That we do not measure our effectiveness indicates a lack of regard for effective management of publicly funded resources.
We must either retain and develop the capacity to meet the challenges of new and/or changing industries, or we redefine our role and make it clear to stakeholders that we will be performing an increasingly outdated function.
We must have some process for measuring how effectively we meet our obligations. Support for programmes, without justification that they deliver the outcomes we claim is not tenable.
The main business risks are:
Approximately 11 staff years are directed to Horizon Scanning and Impact Evaluation at an estimated cost of 434,030 (375,360 staff costs and 58,670 GAE).
Funded from HID resources.
Close contact with major operators in the chemical and offshore sectors is achieved through our day-to-day intervention/regulation activities, through the structured and comprehensive Safety Case Assessment regime, and supported by various operational and strategic fora e.g. CDOIF, HILF, UKOOA, OAIC. Consultation on proposed legislative and business process change is a regular feature of our interaction, and close co-operation/joint initiatives with our regulatory partners e.g. EA, SEPA, LA's ensure we engage stakeholders at appropriate levels and at timely intervals.
Impact evaluation will be measured as progress against a planned programme of studies/reports, although the evaluation exercise for certain workstreams may span more than one operating year.
The programme detail is put together from HID's OG Core operating plan - resources are allocated to it at Unit level.
This programme is allocated to the Core workstream.
The effectiveness of horizon scanning lies in how well we respond to the changes in the sectors for which we have responsibility. Failure to respond could be measured and categorised in terms of impact on Health and Safety targets, our reputation and our cost-effectiveness. Success in foreseeing trends and reacting appropriately are rather more difficult to measure and tend to be unsung.
How well we measure how effective our business activities are discharged is a bit of a circular process. The disciplines and methodologies we apply to impact analysis are inherent to the process and somewhat self-validating. We will use consistent, appropriate, proportionate, cost-effective mechanisms to determine how best a particular tranche of work is to be progressed, and using professional resources from within a recognised discipline.