Abstract of Meeting Paper

The 1996 Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis-Europe

Outcome of CEC Multinational Research on the Application of a Safety Attitude Questionnaire and Process Risk Management Audit (Prima) at Major Hazard Sites. N. W. Hurst, Health and Safety Laboratory, Broad Lane, Sheffield S3 7HQ

The work described in this paper was carried out under the CEC Environment Programme 1993-1994 and involved the following, groups and organisations

• United Kingdom Health and Safety Laboratory
• Dutch Housing, Physical Planning, and Environment Ministry (VROM)
• Four Elements Ltd UK
• DNV Technica UK
• Demokritas Greece
• University of Aveiro Portugal
• Safety Research Unit University of Liverpool UK
• Dutch Ministry of Social Affaires
• Norsk Hydro
• Delft University of Technology
• An Expert Group involving regulators, consultants and Industry.

This paper will give an overview of some of the main findings from the study.

The work has involved the application of a safety attitude survey questionnaire and a Process Safety Management System (PSMS) audit tool called PRIMA (Process Risk Management Audit) at six Major Hazard sites in four European countries. The tools provide quantitative measures of safety attitudes and PSMS performance respectively.

The systems produce a range of outputs and recommendations but one quantitative output measure (a Modification Factor) is compatible with and can be used to modify generic failure rate data used in Quantified Risk Assessment (QRA) for Major Hazards. One aim of the work was to consider the effect of using the Modification Factor on the calculated risk levels for the six sites studied, and to consider some implications for aspects of Risk Management policy in the four countries considered.