Safety chief uses high-hazard visit to distinguish real health and safety from the nonsense

Date:

1 February 2012

Release No:

HSE/NW/13Stanlow

The Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has used a visit to a Cheshire oil refinery to highlight a shining example of a proper approach to health and safety.

Judith Hackitt visited the Stanlow Oil Refinery in Ellesmere Port on Tuesday 31 January, where she met apprentices taking part in training to work in the chemical and oil industries.

HSE Chair Judith Hackitt with apprentices Mike Ravenscroft and Alex McCosh-Dixon

She praised the work taking place at the refinery to train young apprentices, whose work will engage them in some tasks where health and safety really can be a matter of life or death.

Ms Hackitt, who herself worked in the chemical industry for more than 30 years, said:

"These industries show what real health and safety is about. You have to understand the risks involved in working on hazardous processes. Health and safety isn't an add-on; it's fundamental to the job.

"Teaching people the right way to do a job is what apprentice training is about - they learn how to do it safely and efficiently.

"All too often it's the nonsense stories, such as health and safety stopping children playing with conkers or people having street parties, which get reported and health and safety gets a bad name.

"It's great to see such a good example of integrated training which will ensure that these apprentices understand the risks they will face and how to do their job safely.

"Working in a major hazard environment is all about respecting the nature of the processes but getting on with the job."

The Stanlow oil refinery is classified as a 'top tier' site under the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations 1999, and was taken over by Essar Oil last year. Ms Hackitt visited the training centre at the site, following a trip to TTE Training Ltd in Ellesmere Port.

TTE was set up in 1990 in partnership with the refinery to provide training for the chemical, oil and other industries. It now offers three-year apprenticeship schemes for those interested in working in the sector.

Mike Brown, the Health, Safety and Environment Manager at Essar, said:

"Having competent people is a prerequisite for the safe operation of a top-tier site like Stanlow.

"The TTE apprenticeship scheme, which we are very proud of, contributes to this by developing young people to be ready to face the challenges of their new job."

More information on how health and safety is enforced at sites like Stanlow is available at www.hse.gov.uk/comah.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Judith Hackitt joined Exxon Chemical in 1975 as a graduate engineer. She rapidly rose through a series of promotions, including taking on responsibility for process safety at Fawley, the largest refinery in the UK. Judith moved to roles with European and worldwide responsibilities before being appointed the Director General of the Chemical Industries Association. In 2006 Judith become the Implementation Director for the Chemistry for Europe project at the European Chemical Industry Council. In 2008 she became a council member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers in 2010. Judith Hackitt has been named as the president-elect of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) for 2013/14. Judith, already an IChemE Council member, will first take up the role of deputy president in 2012/13.
3. TTE Ltd (Training Tomorrows Engineers) was established in Ellesmere Port in 1990 by Ineos Chlor Vinyls, Runcorn (formerly ICI), Innospec Ellesmere Port (formerly Associated Octel) and Shell UK Oil, Stanlow (Now Essar Oil UK ) to provide training not only for their own companies but other companies in the chemical, petrochemical, power, pharmaceutical, nuclear and other industries throughout the North West.

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