United Kingdom , safety performance

Many and varied infonnation activities sponsored by governments, both national and international, are concerned with the environmental effects and safety of chemical substances. In addition, a significant number of information sources are of value particularly when a comprehensive risk analysis has to be undertaken. This chapter considers governmental work in the United Kingdom, to a lesser extent in the United States, and overseas (with emphasis being placed on that performed by international bodies). 

Licensing authorities would assess the safety and environmental performance of applicants. This might be controversial in the United Kingdom insofar as it could be read as reintroducing elements of safety regulation to the licensing authority. Insofar, however, as the Secretary of State simply awarded points to applicants on safety and environmental criteria, in the same way that he or she does currently, for example, on criteria related to exploration plans, and insofar as health and safety remained the preserve of the dedicated specialist regulator, no problems need arise. 

In addition, information is available from several reputable sources, including the World Offshore Data bank (WOAD) of Det Norske Veritas (DNV), which contains data and analyses on more than 6,000 accidents from 1970, the SINTEF Offshore Blowout Data Base on major blowouts and spills since 1955, and periodic studies done for Oil and Gas UK on accidents dating back to 1990. Such a comparative analysis would be useful to the new DOI regime in which BOEM and BSEE are expected to develop regulatory reforms and to their counterparts in Norway and the United Kingdom as well. Performance indicators and the reporting and evaluation of safety-relevant data are discussed further by Blakstad in Ghapter 9. 

Experimental tests are required to confirm acceptable sampler performance. NIOSH, and the Health and Safety Executive in the United Kingdom, have pubhshed diffusive sampler evaluation protocols that cover the effects of exposme, time, concentration, desorption efficiency, storage stabifity, reverse diffusion, temperatrue, humidity, presence of interfering compovmds, face velocity, and orientation. Many of... 

This agency was created in July 2001 in the United Kingdom to improve patient safety within the framework of the UK National Health Service (NHS) by encouraging voluntary reporting of medical-related errors, performing analysis, and initiating appropriate preventive measures. Since 2005, the NPSA has also been responsible for the following items [7] ... 

A different approach emerged some time ago from legislative action in the United Kingdom and this has spread to other Commonwealth and European countries. Chapters 5 and 34 provide more details. The concept requires employers, manufacturers and others to identify and evaluate the risks of their workplaces, products, and processes. They must then act to eliminate, reduce, and control the risks. Governments do not have to prescribe in detail how to achieve safety through standards and regulations. This is a performance approach. Enforcement focuses on how well responsible parties can identify and mitigate risks. 

The SUNflower approach was first presented in 2002 (Koomstra et al., 2002), when the road safety efforts of the three safest countries worldwide were compared Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The main aim of this comparison was to acquire better insight into the policy development processes of these three countries. It was hoped that this comparison would identify the crucial points that had made it possible for these nations to improve their respective road safety records, and to learn how further improvements could be achieved. Later, this approach was expanded to include nine countries (Wegman et al., 2008). These efforts eventually resulted in a proposal to benchmark the safety performance of countries and jurisdictions (states within countries, provinces) using a composite road safety performance index (Wegman et al., 2008 Wegman and Oppe, 2010). 

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