The Hazards Forum Newsletter Calendar of Events ... such as one aimed an attaining higher visibility of the Forum by introducing an Electronic ... presentation of the evening

Hazards Forum Newsletter No 69 – Winter 2010 WV

The

Hazards Forum

Newsletter

Issue No. 69

Winter 2010

Web version

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Hazards Forum Newsletter

Issue No. 69 - Winter 2010

Contents

2 The First 200-plus Days as Chair of the Hazards Forum

2 Hazards Forum Celebrates a New Distinguished Member

3 Avoiding Catastrophe – Driving for Competence at the Top

7 The Institute of Measurement and Control

9 What is the IIG?

10 The Name Says it All – What Should We Now Call the ErgonomicsSociety?

11 From the Secretary ... ...

11 HSE eNews – Some Examples

12 Calendar of Events

Edited by James Kearns

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the Hazards Forum

Further information regarding the articles in this issue is available from

Tim Fuller on 020 7665 2230, in the Hazards Forum Secretariat Office

E-mail: [email protected]

Hazards Forum website: www.hazardsforum.org.uk

Hazards Forum Secretary: Brian Neale

December 2010


The First 200-plus Days as Chair ofthe Hazards Forum

Paul Thomas

I am delighted to write this opening piece for this, our Winter 2010/11 edition of theNewsletter. It is a good opportunity for me to communicate with members – and particularlythose who, for whatever reason, have not been able attend any Evening Events recently.Back in the Spring, I felt privileged to be nominated as a trustee of the Forum at the AGMand then honoured to become the new Chair of the Forum, taking over from Sir David Davies- which seemed a daunting prospect at the time. I wasn’t too sure what to expect and amhappy to report that I have been impressed with the support and encouragement I havereceived from so many people, including members, guests, presenters and sponsors atevents, the Executive Committee and the Secretariat. Looking forward, we are planningstimulating events for 2011 and it would be a pleasure to see as many of you as possible oneach of those occasions – beyond my first 200 days as Chair. In the meantime, I ampleased to wish you well for whichever of the festivals you may be celebrating during thecoming months. …

Hazards Forum Celebrates a NewDistinguished Member

Brian Neale and James Kearns

Sir David Davies with Paul Thomas, who presented the plaque(Photograph: Brian Neale)

Becoming a Distinguished Member of the Hazards Forum is a rare event and one reservedfor those “who have demonstrated significant work for the Forum, and are distinguishedmembers of the engineering or other profession”. Earlier this year, the Executive Committeewas delighted to recommend that Sir David Davies should be honoured in such a waybecause of his personal contribution to the Forum’s activities in the many preceding years

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when he was Chairman. At a short ceremony before the Evening Event on 21st September,Paul Thomas, the current Chair and direct successor to Sir David, took pleasure inannouncing the elevation of Sir David to that of a Distinguished Member of the HazardsForum.

Mr. Thomas mentioned that the Hazards Forum had much to thank Sir David for, and inparticular for his tireless efforts devoted to successfully improving the reputation andstanding of the Hazards Forum and the strengthening of the links with the Royal Academy ofEngineering and other engineering institutions during his tenure as chairman. In presenting acertificate bestowing distinguished membership, Mr. Thomas mentioned other achievementssuch as one aimed an attaining higher visibility of the Forum by introducing an Electronicversion of the Newsletter for member organisations. The plaque was kindly created anddonated by Dr Ian Lawrenson.

Avoiding Catastrophe –Driving for Competence at the Top

James Kearns

On Tuesday 21st September 2010 theHazards Forum and the Institution of CivilEngineers jointly hosted an evening eventat the latter’s premises in Westminster,London. The event was sponsored by theHealth and Safety Executive.

The evening event was the second in ashort series of two on competence andfollows on from the previous event held inJune. The focus of this event was on theissues of competence, such as ways ofclosing credibility gaps withinorganisations through legal drivers,improved competency protocols andguidance from the Engineering Council.

The event began with Hazards ForumChairman and chair for the eveningPaul Thomas, who welcomed theaudience and thanked the Health andSafety Executive for sponsoring the event,and the Institution of Civil Engineers forhosting the event.

Mr. Thomas particularly welcomed formerHazards Forum Chairman Sir DenDavies, who he then announced was tobe made a distinguished member of theHazards Forum, as reported elsewhere inthis Newsletter.

The event consisted of threepresentations, followed by a discussionperiod with the audience and lastly areception for networking opportunities.

The first presentation was given by AnneDavies, Senior Counsel at Crowell &Moring, whose talk, titled “The credibilitygap – do directors have a false sense ofsecurity?”, explored the idea that anorganisation’s health and safety policiesand management systems can give theBoard of Directors a false sense ofsecurity, which may then lead to a“credibility gap” whereby the Board’sperception of the organisation’s safetyculture does not match reality. The talkalso looked at how this gap could beclosed through legal measures.

This was followed by a presentation fromAllan Bain, Development Director of theSafety and Reliability Society, titled“Competencies – when the incrediblebecomes credible” with the sub title of“The Professionalism Project: NationalCompetencies in Safety and ReliabilityEngineering”. This talk discussed amovement by many engineeringorganisations to evolve a set of common

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competence standards, a movementspurred on by the recommendations of theHaddon-Cave Review.

The talk also recognised the importance ofindustry-specific competence, includingthe “fundamental level” of competencewhich employees learn during theirtraining.

Finally, Professor David Bogle FREngCEng, of University College London,discussed some of the work being done onupdating the Engineering Council’s 1993Guidelines and a Code of Practice on RiskIssues, which is applicable profession-wide.

Professor Bogle is chairing a workinggroup that includes nominees from theprofessional engineering institutions (PEIs)and other organisations, that is looking athow best to produce new guidance on riskthat is brief, top-level and is genericenough so that it can be used by allengineering institutions.

The guidance is also intended todemonstrate to society the profession’scommitment to managing risk effectively.

Anne Davies described how the way inwhich an organisation manages its healthand safety policies can lead to problems inthe overall leadership of the organisation,and how problems with the leadership canaffect the rest of the organisation.

Poor management systems can oftenmean that there are large amounts ofburdensome documents. This excessiveamount of paperwork can unduly reassurea Board of Directors that the organisationhas accounted for all eventualities. In thecase of health and safety managementsystems, this means that a director’sperception of their organisation is that it issafer than it actually is. This is known as a“credibility gap”.

This situation was summed up in thephrase “paperwork does not save lives”.

The false sense of security andoverconfidence a Board may have in theorganisation’s health and safety policiescan also inhibit responsible leadershipbased on integrity and common sense.Furthermore, an overconfident attitudefrom a director can filter down to otheremployees in the organisation. Thismeans that it is very important that thecredibility gap at the top level of anorganisation is closed, so that the attitudeof the Board, or the “tone at the top”, isappropriate to the reality of the situation.

There has been some important legislationintroduced to attempt to reduce thecredibility gap, most of which focus onmaking managers and directors liable forhealth and safety offences. The Healthand Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Section37 focuses on issues of consent,connivance and neglect. The sanctions forbreaching this act range from fines toimprisonment. Another key piece oflegislation is the Corporate Manslaughterand Corporate Homicide Act 2007 whichallows companies to be found guilty ofcorporate manslaughter should serious

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management failures result in a fatality toone of its employees.

There have also been recent issues withthe level of fines that were imposed.Whereas it used to be the case that fineswere too low to worry directors, there isnow more consideration being given tohigher levels, in order to “focus the minds”of directors towards compliance.

The threat of brand damage and damageto reputation is also an incentive towardsachieving compliance.

Allan Bain then discussed how many ofthe organisations in the engineering sectorhad identified the need for a common setof safety standards, which beenrecognised at the Safety and ReliabilitySociety’s 2008 annual conference.

This position was also mirrored in therecommendations of the Haddon-CaveReview of the loss of Nimrod XV230. Thisreview recommended that: “A singleprofessional body should be formed forSafety Experts to set professional andethical standards, accredit members anddisseminate best practice.”

The Safety and Reliability Society is nowacting in response to criticisms of thedefence sector and to a lesser extent, ofsafety practice in general, in partnershipwith the Ministry Of Defence, with ideas tohelp improve competence standardsthroughout the engineering industry.

There have been some initiatives fromother bodies to form a common set ofbasic standards. The Institution ofEngineering and Technology haspublished guidance on basiccompetencies in their 2007 document“Competence Criteria for Safety-relatedSystem Practitioners” and the Health andSafety Executive has published a researchreport which outlines proposals for a basicteaching package of key safety conceptsfor engineering undergraduates in RR452“Development of an IIG/HSE e-LearningHealth and Safety Risk EducationPackage for EngineeringUndergraduates”, where IIG is the InterInstitutional Group on health and safety.

However, despite the initiatives beingundertaken to form a common set ofcompetencies, it should still be recognisedthat domain-specific competence is alsovery important, such as an understandingof the domain in which people practice in,knowledge of the technology being usedand knowledge of the appropriate analysistechniques. The Safety and ReliabilitySociety has been looking at domain-specific competencies and has indentifiedsome key thematic areas of competency,such as generic safety engineering,availability and reliability, which can form abasis for standardisation. The Society hasalso been looking at the competencieslearnt at various qualification levels, andidentified gaps between them, which cangive rise to differing competencestandards.

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Mr. Bain concluded his talk by proposing acollaborative model, whereby the Safetyand Reliability Society act as a bridgebetween the engineering bodies.Consultation with these bodies has so farbeen favourable to co-ordinated activity

Professor David Bogle gave the lastpresentation of the evening. This talk,titled “Profession-wide guidance on riskissues: development of the six headlineprinciples – and more!” described theworking group which was set up earlier inthe year by the Engineering Council inorder to update its 1993 guidance on risk.Professor Bogle is chairing this group,which includes nominees from theprofessional engineering institutions (andothers), which aims to produce brief,generic and profession wide guidance thatwill assist institutions and their members,and also demonstrate to society theprofession’s commitment to managing riskeffectively. Greenfield explained that thiscomes from leadership within theorganisation.

The working group has been discussing awide range of issues which are pertinent tocompiling guidance on risk, such as howrisk might be defined, how best to dealwith systems as a whole and account fornon-technical issues, such as people,behaviour and attitudes.

Discussion of issues such as thoseillustrated above has led the group todevelop six principles to guide anengineer. Approval for the material will besought from the Engineering Council’sBoard later this year, with the aim ofpublishing the guidance in 2011. The draftprinciples include aspects of practice suchas professional and responsiblejudgement, taking a leadership role,systematic and holistic approaches,ensuring good communication andcontributing to public awareness of risk.

Professor Bogle explained that each of thesix principles will be expanded by way of ashort list of bullet points and, whereappropriate, examples of practice will beincluded. The working group is keen tostress the importance of using informedjudgement and that factors cannot be

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examined in isolation. Professor Boglestressed that there is always a need forhonesty and clarity, for supportingevidence and to be able to challengemisrepresentations.

Mr. Thomas then thanked the speakers fortheir presentations and opened the floorfor questions.

The following discussion, whichconsisted of a mixture of questions to thespeakers and comments, explored moregeneral areas of competence, such as thecompetence of an organisation as awhole, rather than competence ofindividuals, and whether an organisationbeing prosecuted for causing a largeaccident could ever be found to haveoperated competently. There was also acomment about a study of 10 majoraccidents which found that there was alack of understanding of cultural and socialissues present in each accident.

Mr. Thomas then thanked the sponsorsfor the event, the speakers for their talksand those who had contributed to thediscussion. He then gave some finalremarks, which were that safety isachieved not through paperwork butthrough people, and that the “soft” socialand cultural issues are the areas ofvulnerability. Mr. Thomas then invited allattendees to network and continue theirdiscussions over the light refreshmentswhich followed.

[Ed. note: The first event in the mini-series on competencies was reported inNewsletter No. 68]

[Ed. note: A report on the undergraduatehealth and safety risk teaching package,mentioned above, was published inNewsletter No. 68]

The Institute of Measurement and Control

Peter MartindaleChief Executive Officer

Founded in 1944 and incorporated byRoyal Charter in 1975, The Institute ofMeasurement and Control is committed topromoting the professional excellence ofengineers and technologists at all levels in

the automation, instrumentation, controland related industries. Its aims are toadvance the science and practice ofmeasurement and control technologiesand their various applications, to foster the

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exchange of views and the communicationof knowledge and ideas in these activities,and to promote the professionalqualification and standing of its members.The Institute is therefore both a learnedsociety and a professional qualifying bodyoccupying a niche in the automation-focussed industries.

In keeping with its commitment toexcellence, the Institute welcomes asmembers those practising or interested inmeasurement and control technologies.Honorary Fellow (HonFInstMC) recognisesdistinction in relevant scientific or technicalachievements or meritorious service to theInstitute. From Fellow (FInstMC) - themost senior membership grade,recognizing significant contribution to theindustry - through to Student, the Instituteaccommodates the aspirations ofindividuals at all stages of theirprofessional careers. Acceptably qualifiedand experienced members are also ablepursue professional qualifications ofinternational standing, including CharteredEngineer (CEng), Incorporated Engineer(IEng) and Engineering Technician(EngTech) registration with theEngineering Council. All members areoffered the fullest possible support for theirprofessional development.

In essence, the Institute is its members,the majority of whom are domiciled in theUK. There is an international dimensionnevertheless, with a noticeablemembership in Hong Kong and a growingmembership in Malaysia and China.Catering at regional level for the members’professional, technical and, occasionally,their social interests are the Institute’sLocal Sections. Run by members formembers, there are currently ten activeSections in the UK, one active Section inHong Kong and a fledging Section inMalaysia.

Companies are invited to join theInstitute’s Companion Company Scheme.Access to its website, use of its logo andpromotion in its publications offers themthe opportunity to demonstrate theirassociation with the Institute and to soenhance their business profiles.

As a learned society, the Institute deliversa range of services and benefits toMembers. Key services include publicationof:

● the Yearbook, a principal source ofinformation and reference for practitionersin instrumentation and control

● Measurement and Control, amonthly journal containing news andtechnical articles of interest to themembership generally, with specialfeatures on particular topics, and

● Transactions, a series of refereedpapers at the forefront of the theory andpractice of measurement and control.

It also organises a range of conferencesand symposia, nationally andinternationally, either on its own or inconjunction with other institutions andsocieties or on behalf of internationalfederations. Many of its shorter technicalmeetings are run by its Local Sectionswhich are invariably able to use their linkswith local industry for topics.

Supporting the Institute’s learned societyactivities are its Technical Panels whichcover measurement science andtechnology, safety, standards, systemsand control, systems management andweighing and force measurement.Comprised of members volunteering theirexperience and expertise in particularfields, the Panels provide much of theInstitute’s interface with industry. ThePanels also provide forums through whichthe Institute can channel its commentarieson, and responses to, matters of publicconcern and consultation.

The Institute has strong links withinternational bodies such as theInternational Measurement Confederation(IMEKO), where it represents the UK, andthe International Federation of AutomaticControl, as well as bilateral links with otheroverseas professional organisations.Within the UK the Institute participates inthe activities and deliberations of theBritish Standards Institute, theParliamentary and Scientific Committee,

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the United Kingdom Automatic ControlCouncil and the affairs of the engineeringprofession generally. It enjoys goodrelationships with the National PhysicalLaboratory, GAMBICA, the TradeAssociation for Instrumentation, Control,Automation and Laboratory Technology inthe UK, and the Worshipful Company ofScientific Instrument Makers.

The underpinning emphasis of all theInstitute’s activities and services is toprovide thinkers and practitioners withopportunities to participate in the affairsand proceedings of an organisation that iscommitted to promoting excellence in theprofession it serves.

The Institute’s Coat of Arms incorporates an albatross withlightning in its beak as a symbol of control concepts. Thealbatross extracts energy from sea-waves and the varyingairflow above them, in order to sustain flight indefinitely bylocking its vast wing span in the open position allowing itto glide for hundreds of miles, touching land only for thenecessity of breeding with its life partner.

For enquiries and/or further information,please contact Peter Martindale,[email protected].

The Institute of Measurement andControl’s website is: www.instmc.org.uk.

What is the IIG?

Graham Barber, IETSecretary to the Inter-Institutional Group on Health and Safety

The idea for a cross-disciplinaryprofessional group to collaborate on keyhealth and safety issues came out of theInstitution of Electrical Engineers’ (IEE)health and safety group in the mid-1990s,and in particular its Chairman Dr DickTaylor (now Professor Taylor).

A first meeting was held on the 18th

November 1995, at the IEE, betweenrepresentatives from the four largeengineering professional bodies (seedetails below). Also present wererepresentatives from the Hazards Forumwhich had been set up in 1989 by the fourlarge institutions to provide an importantinterface between engineering and thesocial sciences.

The conclusion of the first meeting wasthat the organisations involved were“welcoming co-operation”, and had “afeeling that it could be made to work”.Thus the Inter-Institutional Group (IIG) onhealth and safety was born. The IIG has

met regularly since then, and usually twicea year. It is an informal group thatoperates by consensus and discussesissues and promotes work on health,safety and risk that are of broad interest toall the institutions and their members. Akey aspect is the exchange of informationabout individual institution’s health andsafety activities. In between meetings theIIG conducts its work electronically andthrough representation at meetings.

The IIG has progressively grown inmembership to comprise the:

Engineering Council Hazards Forum* Health and Safety Executive Institution of Ergonomics & Human

Factors Institute of Marine Engineering

Science and Technology Institution of Chemical Engineers* Institution of Civil Engineers*

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Institution of Engineering andTechnology (formerly the IEE)*

Institution of Mechanical Engineers* Institution of Occupational Safety and

Health Institution of Structural Engineers Safety and Reliability Society

* Represented at the first meeting

Since 1995, the IET (formerly the IEE) hasprovided both the chairman andsecretariat. Professor Dick Taylor haschaired the IIG since the first meeting.This arrangement has worked well but withthe expansion of the IIG it has recentlybeen proposed that the chairmanship andsecretariat rotates amongst themembership. This possibility is currentlybeing discussed. Hosting of meetings willcontinue to alternate amongst theinstitutions’ London venues.

Historically the IIG activity has centred onaspects of risk teaching, occupationalhealth, and safety culture issues.

The IIG is currently working on two keycross-disciplinary areas:

• Contributing knowledge to the work

of the Engineering Council on new“Guidelines on Risk” aimed at informingengineers about risk in-line with the UKspecification for Chartered Engineers, andto demonstrate to the public how seriouslythe engineering profession(s) take itsresponsibilities and accountabilities onrisk. This project was presented at theHazards Forum evening event on the 21st

September 2010.

• The undergraduate (and other

students) health and safety risk teachingproject reported in Newsletter No. 68(autumn 2010).

Further details about current IIG work, andsome of its output, can be found at:http://www.theiet.org/publicaffairs/panels/iig/index.cfm . The IIG and Hazards Forumwork closely through executive co-membership.

For more information please contact theIIG Secretary Graham Barber,[email protected]

The Name Says It All – What Should We NowCall the Ergonomics Society?

Reg SellFormer President of the Ergonomics Society

The Ergonomics Society is now known as the Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors.This name change came about in order to make it clear to professionals and industry thathuman factors specialists are part of the ergonomics community. Their training and expertiseis the same as for ergonomists and they have the same aim which is to use their knowledgeof human abilities and limitations to design and build for safety, efficiency, productivity andcomfort.

This brought us in line with understanding in the international ergonomics community that theterms ergonomics and human factors are interchangeable. When the Ergonomics ResearchSociety was founded in 1949, it was the first of its kind in the world and the term humanfactors had not been created. It was therefore rather timely that the name change came intoeffect towards the end of the Society’s 60th anniversary year, because 2009 gave us the

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opportunity to reflect on the achievements and developments over the years, before movingonto new challenges.

Because technology advances are moving at such a pace, understanding and designing forthe human operator at the centre of the process is now more important than ever before.Now almost a year on, the Institute has been organising some very topical internationalevents including the design of control rooms and human & organisational factors in the oil,gas & chemical industries.

If you would like to know more, please contact: [email protected] orsee www.ergonomics.org.uk

From the Secretary …

The next AGM date and venue is shown in the Calendar of Events on page 12. This is, ofcourse, for members and is scheduled to begin at 16.30 on the 22nd March. As usual, anevening event will follow. All members are urged to attend, if possible. A formal notice willbe sent to members early in 2011.

Lord Young’s Report on Health and Safety received much publicity. Those who are notaware of the HSE response may find the link in the section below of interest. The site alsoincludes a link to the report.

Readers will have seen in recent editions, articles by various bodies describing who theyare and what do, often with background about that organisation. What may not be clearalways is why they appear in the Newsletter. It is because they are member bodies on theForum and the reason for the articles is to help with mutual understanding of our fellowmembers.

Brian Neale

HSE eNews – Some Examples

++ HSE Welcomes Lord Young’s Report on Health and Safety ++The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today warmly welcomed the publication of LordYoung's report into health and safety. Judith Hackitt, the HSE Chair, said:

"Lord Young's report is an important milestone on the road to recovery for the reputation ofreal health and safety. HSE welcomes it and will be actively pursuing thoserecommendations within our remit.

"HSE will continue to champion a sensible and proportionate approach to dealing withserious risks in the workplace - not eliminating every minor risk from everyday life."http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2010/hse-lordyoungreport.htm

++ HSE Chair Warns Against Complacency Creeping Back in the North Sea OffshoreIndustry ++Judith Hackitt, Chair of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has warned of the dangers ofallowing another cycle of decaying commitment to maintaining the integrity of offshorefacilities at a conference organised by the North Sea Offshore Authorities Forum (NSOAF) inAberdeen today (23 November).http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2010/hse-nsoaf.htm

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++ Publications ++Estimating the chances of people being harmed from an industrial incident – a number ofpublications can be seen at the following address:http://www.hse.gov.uk/societalrisk/index.htm?ebul=hsegen&cr=25/29-nov-10

++ 'What to expect when a health and safety inspector calls' ++HSC 14 - A brief guide for businesses, employees and their representatives. This updatedleaflet explains what you can expect when a health and safety inspector calls at yourworkplace. It also tells employees and their representatives what information they mayexpect from an inspector during a visit.http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hsc14.htm?ebul=hsegen&cr=5/29-nov-10

Calendar of Events

Please check the Events section of the Hazards Forum website for more information atwww.hazardsforum.org.uk including any updates in the calendar. These may include

additional events or perhaps amendments to the Events shown below.Please note that attendance to Hazards Forum events is by invitation.

Date Event Venue Contact/furtherinformation

DECEMBER1 IMechE event, HF

supported: Using HumanFactors for EngineeringSuccess

Austin Court, Birmingham Jacqui [email protected]

JANUARY11 IET event: Thrills not Spills

– Evening LectureShrewsbury http://www.theiet.org/local/

uk/westmids/salop/events/thrills-not-spills.cfm

MARCH22 Hazards Forum AGM for

membersInstitution of CivilEngineers, One GreatGeorge Street,Westminster, London,SW1P 3AA

Tim [email protected]

22 Hazards Forum EveningEvent Provisional Date

Institution of CivilEngineers, One GreatGeorge Street,Westminster, London,SW1P 3AA

Tim [email protected]

30 - 31 ICE event: Energy fromWaste 2011

Institution of CivilEngineers, One GreatGeorge Street,Westminster, London,SW1P 3AA

[email protected] [email protected]:http://www.ice-energyfromwaste.com/

APRIL11 IChemE event: “Hazards

XXII” SymposiumManchester Rosemary Cragg –

[email protected];http://www.icheme.org/hazardsxxii/

Please see members own websites for further events.

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The Hazards Forum’s Mission is to contribute to government, industry, science, universities,NGOs and Individuals to find practical ways of approaching and resolving hazard and riskissues, in the interests of mutual understanding, public confidence and safety.

The forum was established in 1989 by four of the principal engineering institutions because ofconcern about the major disasters which had occurred about that time.

The Hazards Forum holds regular meetings on a wide range of subjects relating to hazardsand safety, produces publications on such topics, and provides opportunities forinterdisciplinary contacts and discussions.

The Hazards ForumOne Great George Street

WestminsterLondon SW1P 3AA

E-mail: [email protected]: 020 7665 2230

Fax: 020 7799 1325

Website: www.hazardsforum.org.uk

Registered charity number 1047047

Documents

The Hazards Forum Newsletter Calendar of Events ... such as one aimed an attaining higher visibility of the Forum by introducing an Electronic ... presentation of the evening