Risk an Emotive Issue

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Risk an Emotive Issue

• Neil Budworth
• Immediate Past President
• The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health

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IOSH

• Established in 1945,
• Royal Charter in 2003
• Individual Chartered members 2005
• Europes leading health and safety professional
  body
• Over 30,000 members in more than 50 countries
• Independent, not-for-profit organisation
• Maintains and steers professional standards
• Provides impartial, authoritative guidance on
  health and safety issues
• for a safer world of work

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Risk is an Emotive Issue Partly its Culture

• What is a health and safety culture ?
• Has the UK Culture changed ?
• Has this had an impact ?
• The other things that affect health and safety
  decision making ?

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Health and Safety Culture

• The safety culture of an organisation is the
  product of individual and group values,
  attitudes, perceptions, competencies and patterns
  of behaviour that determine the commitment to and
  the style and proficiency of, an organisations
  health and safety management

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Health and Safety Culture Cont

• Organisations with a positive safety culture are
  characterised by communications founded on mutual
  trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of
  safety and by competence in the efficacy of
  preventative measures.

ACNSI Third report Organising for Safety
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Health and Safety Culture

• The way we do things around here.

The CBI
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Culture
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What we tolerate Have things changed ?
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What we tolerate Have things changed ?
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What we tolerate Have things changed ?
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What we tolerate Have things changed ?
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What we tolerate determines what happens
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The UK Culture Safety is that an historic
problem ?
UK 2006/7 241 Deaths (217-05/06) 77 in
Construction (59 05/06) UK 2005/6 299,000
Reportable Injuries
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The approach to Health and Safety has changed
because of -

• Cost
• Productivity
• Social Acceptability

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Cost To a company
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Cost - To company
460,000 Per year
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Good Health and Safety is Good Business
Source HSE Case study of Taylor Woodrow
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BP Share Price Comparison Post Texas City
BP Incident - March 2005 15 workers 170 injured
Baker Report
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Productivity

• On a more basic level
• - which is safer and more productive ?

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This - Or
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This ?
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Has our changing culturemade any difference ?
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Accidents Against Output
Fatal accident rate to Construction Workers
against Industry
Output, April 1993 to March 2005
90
9
80
8
70
7
60
6
50
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Fatal Accident rate per 100,000 workers
40
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Output (billion) at 2000 prices
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3
20
2
10
1
0
0
1993/94
1994/95
1995/96
1996/97
1997/98
1998/99
1999/00
2000/01
2001/02
2002/03
2003/04
2004/05p
Injury figures for 1996/7 cannot be compared
directly with previous year's figures because of
the introduction of RIDDOR 95
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Impact of Cultural Changes in Construction
What has happened cumulatively since 99/00
compared with the position if the rates had
continued?
Baseline

• 3,128 fewer major injuries to employees
• 10,684 fewer over-3-day injuries to employees

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Impact of Cultural Changes in Construction
What happened in year 2005/06 compared with the
position if 1999/2000 rates had continued?

• 45 fewer worker fatalities

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But In 2006/ 7

• Number of fatalities up from
• 217 to 241
• In Construction up from
• 59 to 77

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The Other Things That Affect Health and Safety
Decision Making

• The media
• Politics
• Judgements
• Business
• Society

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The Media - Compensation Culture

• The media
• Fear of litigation and risk averse behaviour
• Actual trends
• Between 2000-2005 number of personal injury
  claims has fallen

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The Media - Elf and Safety

• Risk averse decisions
• Political shielding
• Urban myths
• Hanging baskets
• Bonkers Conkers
• Lack of competent advice

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Judgements Reasonable Person

• Some persons are by nature unduly timorous and
  imagine every path beset with lions. Others, of
  more robust temperament, fail to foresee or
  nonchalantly disregard even the most obvious
  dangers. The reasonable man is presumed to be
  free both from over-apprehension and from
  over-confidence, but there is a sense in which
  the standard of care of the reasonable man
  involves in its application a subjective element.
  It is still left to the judge to decide what, in
  the circumstances of the particular case, the
  reasonable man would have had in contemplation,
  and what, accordingly, the party sought to be
  made liable ought to have foreseen. Here there is
  room for diversity of view, as, indeed, is well
  illustrated in the present case. What to one
  judge may seem far-fetched may seem to another
  both natural and probable. Glasgow Corporation v
  Muir 1943

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Society Tolerability of risks

• The Tolerability of Risk from Nuclear Power
  Stations
• the final judgement of whether a risk is
  tolerable or not, is not for experts alone, but
  also for the people who have to bear the risks

The Licence to Operate
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Politics Quotes Following Major Rail Crashes

• I confirm that we have made it quite clear that
  money will be no obstacle to implementing the
  recommendations. (Hansard 1989 column 839)
• We must emphasise to everyone concerned that
  safety comes first, second and third on Britains
  railways. (Hansard 1999 column 269)
• Safety is of paramount importance,(Hansard
  2004 column 1078)

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Cost vs Risk - Case Studies

• Judgement balance
• Value of preventing a fatality
• Company and group dynamics

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The Ford Pinto
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Ford Pinto CBA
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Challenger Space Shuttle
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SRB O-ring design
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SRB O-ring re-design
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Getting the Balance Right

• Sensible Risk Management

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Sensible risk management is about

• Ensuring that workers and the public are properly
  protected
• Providing overall benefit to society by balancing
  benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real
  risks both those which arise more often and
  those with serious consequences
• Enabling innovation and learning not stifling
  them

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Sensible risk management is about

• Ensuring that those who create risks manage them
  responsibly and understand that failure to manage
  real risks responsibly is likely to lead to
  robust action
• Enabling individuals to understand that as well
  as the right to protection, they also have to
  exercise responsibility

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Risk management IOSH reality checklist

• 1. Get together
• Work together
• 2. Be aware
• Of rights and responsibilities
• 3. Think about the real world
• Solutions should be sensible, cost-effective,
  proportionate no red tape.
• 4. Take a positive approach
• We enable we dont stop
• We want to save life not stop it!

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Sensible risk management is not about

• Creating a totally risk free society
• Generating useless paperwork mountains
• Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising
  trivial risks
• Stopping important recreational and learning
  activities for individuals where the risks are
  managed
• Reducing protection of people from risks that
  cause real harm and suffering

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But

• The risks we miss

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Claimants of Working Age Incapacitated by Long
Term Sickness and Disability
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Cost To the UK

• 2 Million people suffer from work related ill
  health
• 2.7 Million people claim incapacity benefit
• 40 Million working days lost each year
• Cost to economy 12 Billion

1/3 people starting to claim incapacity benefit
come from work
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We have new challenges

• Workplace health
• Keeping people fit and at work
• Bringing people back who have been ill

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Summary

• Risk decisions are complex and are not black and
  white
• Public debate because of risk averse decisions
• Decisions are influenced by
• The media
• Politics
• Emotion
• Business
• Society
• Perception

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Summary

• Our culture has changed and is changing
• Competent health and safety advice avoids
  problems and adds value
• Changes in culture have saved many lives
• Sensible risk management is the key
• We still have huge challenges on safety and on
  occupational health

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• Any Questions ?