HSE and industry pledge on offshore safety

HSE Press Release E179:02 - 19 September 2002

The Health and Safety Executive and Step Change have reiterated their commitment to making the UK offshore oil and gas industry the safest in the world by 2010. The pledge follows publication of the HSE's third annual offshore safety statistics bulletin, which reports that three people died in offshore incidents in 2001-2, the same as in the previous year, while the number of serious injuries increased by two to 55 over the same period.

Commenting on the report, Taf Powell, head of HSE's Offshore Division, said:

"During the last year three people have died offshore in the areas which HSE regulates. This is three too many and none of us can rest until this figure is reduced to zero. Everyone will be concerned to see that there were also more serious injuries per 100,000 workers than last year. The numbers of less serious injuries and dangerous occurrences (potentially serious incidents where no-one is injured) continue to improve, which is encouraging.

"Overall therefore, UK offshore industry performance is static, probably improving slowly. HSE, offshore employers and the workforce are not satisfied with this state of affairs and have committed to working more effectively together to secure our common objective of significant improvement."

Tom Botts, Chair of Step Change:

"There has been improvement in UK safety performance since the start of Step Change in Safety in 1997, but we all want to see even greater gains. We have set ourselves a bold new vision that by 2010 the UK continental shelf will be the safest place to work in the worldwide oil and gas industry. One of the ways we will do that is to get better alignment and collaboration between industry and the HSE to target key safety improvements in the workplace."

Tom Botts continued:

"We are also getting new widespread involvement from the most senior leaders across our Industry. I am confident that this new vision and approach will deliver the continued safety improvements we must achieve.

The Offshore Safety Bulletin has been specifically written for the offshore workforce and their safety representatives. It aims to present a clear, easy-to-understand summary of the numbers and types of incident that have happened in the 12 months leading up to 31 March 2002.

The bulletin also allows managers and offshore safety professionals to see an early summary of provisional 'headline' injury and incident figures key statistics. HSE will publish detailed reports of incident statistics and hydrocarbon releases towards the end of 2002.

Taf Powell added:

"Everyone who works offshore has a part to play in improving standards of health and safety and it is important that the whole workforce knows how the industry is performing. This bulletin is concise, user friendly and easily accessed from the internet. I hope it will be widely read and used. In my view it should be posted on notice boards on offshore installations, onshore offices and headquarters and in premises where offshore workers and industry focused undergraduates are trained."

"I am tremendously encouraged that the most senior members of the UK industry - oil companies, trade union leaders, drilling contractors, service and contractor companies and HSE - are joining together in the Step Change programme. This bulletin may be taken as an indicator of where we start and I look forward to improvements in performance by the time of the next bulletin in 2003."

Notes to editors

1. 'Step Change' is a key initiative of the UK offshore industry. It is aims to deliver a major improvement in the whole industry's safety performance through cross-industry partnerships and the engagement and participation of all sectors of the industry. It is supported by the 10 industry trade associations, the trade unions and COGENT (previously OPITO), the industry's national training organisation. The Step Change leadership team, currently chaired by Tom Botts, Managing Director of Shell U.K. Exploration and Production, reports to and is sponsored by PILOT, the Government and industry partnership. Step Change seeks to engage the industry workforce at every level in the safety improvement process through the 3 networks of offshore installation managers (OIMs), safety professionals / advisers and elected safety representatives as well as through the Step Change member companies, trade associations and unions.

2. Since the start of Step Change in 1997, there has been an 8% improvement in the fatal and major injury rate and a 38% improvement in the all injury rate.

3. Further information on the health and safety initiatives provided by Step Change may be found on the website www.stepchangeinsafety.net.

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