HSE Chief Executive issues challenge to major hazard industries

E08:08 18 February 2008

HSE Chief Executive, Geoffrey Podger, today challenged the major hazard industries to take more responsibility for tackling the safety issues it faces.

Speaking at the American Society of Safety Engineers-Middle East Chapter annual conference in Bahrain, Geoffrey Podger told delegates how essential it was to invest in safety, "All of us here today have a common aim. We want our business and industry to be successful and for that success to be sustained in the long term. However, major incidents, like Buncefield, undermine this effort. Safety not only ensures people go home safely at the end of the day; it's also good for business. It requires investment though. Investment in leadership; investment in infrastructure; and investment in learning."

Mr Podger explained how the true challenge was to change behaviour in the boardroom, since it is their action and delivery that really counts, "Leadership is demonstrated through actions from the top, so that a culture develops where all managers and staff know that safety is being taken seriously. Staff must see and hear the right messages, with the right tone and level of commitment. Managers must walk the talk, and be seen to listen to staff and to value their insights. To achieve this, it is necessary to encourage a no-blame relationship, to recognise safe behaviours and challenge unsafe practices.

"Strong leadership is fundamental to achieving robust process safety management. It is a Company Board issue and requires clear accountabilities at all levels, together with effective measurement systems, including indicators of process safety performance to enable learning from near misses and pre-cursor events, and avoiding major incidents. It is essential also to use the right metrics: too often occupational health and safety data is used as an assurance of the unrelated but key issue of process safety.

"Furthermore, an ingrained quest to learn is critical, companies must seek to learn from their own experiences while also looking beyond themselves for lessons in order to avoid complacency," concluded Mr Podger.

Notes to editors

1. The 8th Professional Development Conference and Exhibition organized by the American Society of Safety Engineers-Middle East Chapter (ASSE-MEC) will run between 16-20 February 2008 in Bahrain. The theme for the conference is: Solutions for Regional SH&E Challenges and is the most comprehensive forum on issues within the safety, health and environmental (SH&E) segment of the region industries including oil, gas and petrochemical. Delegates, each a stakeholder in the fields of SH&E, represent a diverse group of managers, engineers, and scientists. Further details about the conference can be found at: http://www.asse-mec.org/
2. Great Britain's onshore chemical industry sector comprises over 9,000 sites including refineries, large chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, fuel/chemical storage and distribution sites, and warehouses. Meanwhile, the offshore oil and gas industry includes around 300 installations ranging from unmanned gas platforms to large oil and gas platforms and includes floating production installations and drilling rigs. These are covered by what are known as 'Permissioning' regimes that have the common principles of requiring operators to produce a safety case or report to set out the hazards created by their activities and to demonstrate that there are effective measures in place to manage or control the associated risks. HSE then assesses and analyses these reports and uses them, together with other sources of intelligence, to carry out risk-based verification by inspection. Permissioning regimes are an addition to a general framework of health and safety law.
3. Top level level commitment and leadership can make a huge difference to securing the strong, positive safety cultures which are so important if major accident hazards are to be avoided. As a result this is a major theme for HSE over the coming year. As a result, HSE has invited 250 chief executives, and other industry, regulatory, trade union and government leaders to a conference in London on 29th April to discuss and share their experiences on how top level commitment and leadership makes that difference. We are hoping that they will take away the lessons learnt from major incidents like the BP Texas City refinery, and the need for the very top management in industry to recognise their role in setting strong and visible process safety controls for major hazards throughout their organisations.

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