Raising safety standards in hazardous industries: a Regulator's perspective

by John Wilkinson, Team Leader, HSE Hazardous Installations Inspectorate
Wednesday, 14 April 2010, 09.00

After ten years of developing the inspection and industry approach to human factors in major hazards control and prevention for the onshore chemical and allied industries, this is a regulatory (and personal) reflection on achievements, on what worked and didn't work, current challenges, and a look forward at the next ten years. One of our big achievements has been (a) the development of the human factors topic-focused web pages on the HSE website and (b) the development of accessible and usable guidance, tools and other support materials under each topic. Another has been the extensive training and other support my team has provided for HSE inspectors and specialists, and for industry. All of these achievements have substantially raised the profile of human factors in the onshore major hazard industries and also the degree of focused activity in addressing them. There's still a way to go though, in how people think about hazard and risk control, and about accidents and incidents, and this means personal and cultural change on a large scale - so this is not a short-term project.

John Wilkinson, MErgS, CMIOSH, Human & Organisational Factors Team Leader (Onshore), H M Principal Specialist Inspector (Human Factors), Health and Safety Executive, Hazardous Installations Directorate, Chemicals Industry Division.
John has worked in HSE for over 20 years, joining from industry, and has a psychology background. He was a founder member of the Hazardous Installations Directorate's (HID's) human & organisational factors team in September 1999 and became Team Leader in 2003. The Team's aim is to drive and promote awareness of, and continuous improvement in, priority human factor topics in the onshore COMAH - major hazard - industries.
John inspects widely across the UK on COMAH sites, assesses safety reports, manages the human factors team and strategy, provides advice to other HSE directorates and to industry, coordinates and produces guidance, manages research, provides training for HID inspectors on human factors, runs workshops and seminars with the industry and intermediaries, writes articles, and presents regularly at other conferences and seminars. John acted as subject matter expert reviewer on human factors for the US Chemical Safety Board's report on the BP Texas City accident, and was closely involved in the Buncefield investigation.