HSC Chair's call for effective leadership in the downstream oil industry

Date:

21 February 2008

Release No:

C004:08

Today the Chair of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC), Judith Hackitt chaired an International Safety Conference hosted by the UK Petroleum Industry Association which brought together experts from the oil industry, regulators, professional bodies and trade associations in order to generate a wider debate on process safety and sharing of best practice in the downstream oil industry.

Recent incidents, at Texas City, Buncefield and the Thorp plant in Sellafield have emphasized to everyone the need to learn lessons from the past and from each other and improve process safety performance across the major hazard industries.

Ms Hackitt once again called for effective leadership, a major theme she has championed since taking on her role as HSC Chair, "Organisations with effective and demonstrable leadership that is committed to the control and mitigation of major hazard risks are proven to have a better performance in safety and in business. Process safety management must take place at all business levels. The Board must lead the way by setting accountabilities at all levels, together with effective measurement systems, including indicators of process safety performance.

"I cannot emphasise enough how industry leaders must play a pivotal role in setting strong and visible process safety controls throughout their organisations. Safety not only ensures that people go home safely at the end of the day, but is also good business."

Highlighting the need to ensure that important information, experiences and know-how are obtained and retained, Ms Hackitt said, "Loss of corporate memory is an increasingly familiar problem and we must find a solution in order to allow new people entering the sector to understand the legacy before changing the future."

With the Piper Alpha disaster marking its 20th anniversary this year, Ms Hackitt's stark reminder to the industry cannot be more poignant, "Safety lessons, some learned the very hard way, must not be forgotten. Many of the incidents happened over a working lifetime ago and as staff retire and records not updated, knowledge is being lost. There is no room for complacency and I would like to see industry and individual companies taking more responsibility to learn and implement sustainable process safety."

HSE has invited key CEOs and senior leaders to a Major Hazards conference on 29 April 2008, to discuss and share experiences on how top level commitment and leadership can help in embedding a strong safety culture that is vital to minimise risks of major incidents.

Notes to editors

1. Judith Hackitt will Chair the International Safety Conference organised by UKPIA and the Energy Institute as part of the International Petroleum Week (18-21 February).
2. To prevent major incidents HSE has recommended to organisations that they focus on process safety leadership built around 7 key elements:
   • Leadership which is demonstrated through actions from the top, so that all managers and staff know that process safety is taken seriously.
     (The recent HSE/Chemical Industries Association publication HSG 254 outlines an approach for 'Developing Process Safety Indicators for the chemical and major hazard industries').
   • Real and dynamic risk assessments to ensure that staff understand the links between hazards and the risks they create, and the control measures that are in place to control them.
   • Robust management of change approaches that capture real time plant and operational issues so that today's plant and operating envelope are properly understood by those that 'need to know it'.
   • Sustainability, with the business focussing on long term performance, so that investment and maintenance decisions in particular are focussed on the longer term, whilst also maintaining a responsible customer approach to any activities that are contracted out.
   • Well trained and competent people at all levels in the organisation and in sufficient numbers to address steady state operation, periods of change and emergency situations, and the infrastructure to ensure sustained competency.
   • A learning organisation that not only values and encourages learning from its own experiences, but looks beyond itself for lessons and avoids complacency.
3. Last year HSE took its guidance for Directors one step further by producing Leading Health and Safety at Work, a practical guide written for directors, by directors. By committing themselves to working in partnership to produce this important document, director and industry leaders have sent out a strong message to their colleagues that they must do more to implement an effective safety culture.

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