Controlling major risks
June 1st 2007 Bill Callaghan, Chair of the Health and Safety
Commission has called on leaders in the chemical and
major hazard industries to reinforce partnership working
practices with the HSE and the Competent Authority
At the 12th
International
Symposium on Loss
Prevention and Safety
Promotion in Edinburgh last
month, Bill Callaghan
emphasised the need for
and significance of boardlevel
leadership and director
responsibility on health and
safety to achieve a cultural
change towards safety and
to control major hazard
risks.
Challenging the industry
to support and own HSC/E's
aim to benchmark Great
Britain as a world leader in
the control of major hazards
Mr Callaghan said, "I call
upon the best of your
leaders to come forward to
work with the HSE and the
Competent Authority to
ensure that their values,
their approach and
achievements inspire and
encourage others in the
industry.
"There are many lessons
learnt from a series of high
profile incidents such as
Buncefield, BP Grangemouth
Conoco Philips in
Humberside and the THORP
facility. The challenge is to
show greater and stronger
leadership and play a
greater role in major
incident control by
engaging with your
workforce to solve health
and safety problems. The
industry has a clear
responsibility to ensure that
risks are properly controlled
to reduce the chances of
incidents of this nature
happening again."
HSE, with its Competent
Authority partners, is
engaging with industry
stakeholders with the aim of
setting up an onshore Major
Hazards Group to promote
leadership and to take on
board lessons learnt from
recent incidents.
Efforts to encourage
industry to embrace high
standards of health and
safety are at the core
HSC/E's Chemical Industries
Division's objectives:
To reduce the probability
of a major hazard accident
through interventions under
the Control of Major Hazard
Regulations; To work with
industry and stakeholders to
ensure that people leave
work at the end of the day
in at least as good a state of
health as when they started;
To provide advice on Land
Use Planning issues on the
basis of risks to people
offsite from on-site
operations.
HSE's Nuclear Directorate
has produced principles on
Leadership and Management
for Safety drawing upon
lessons from worldwide
events. It is using these to
develop an integrated
intervention strategy for
application at corporate
level within licensees. This
will include more focus on
influencing to achieve
improvements to safety.
In conclusion, Bill
Callaghan said, "Later this
year we will be inviting
major hazard stakeholders
to a conference to address
safety in your industry. This
event will bring together all
of the important players
drawn from business, the
trade unions, regulators and
Government with the aim of
showing how to achieve
world class leadership in the
control of major hazard
risks.
"We need to make sure
that our goal of becoming a
world leader in the control
of major hazards is
achieved, not only in
business terms, but also for
the health and safety of
those who work in the
industry and for society." More articles from HSE: | 
