ENABLING NET ZERO IN MAJOR HAZARD INDUSTRIES

The UK government’s Health and Safety Executive has launched a new Strategy for 2022-2032, setting out a key objective to enable industry to innovate safely to prevent major incidents, all while supporting the move towards net zero. It’s important that operators in the tank storage sector are clear on what they can expect from the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Competent Authority and what HSE expects to see from them. How to identify and embed good practice in a major hazards environment and the role of executive leadership is well understood in the mature technologies of the hydrocarbon economy. Much of this understanding will transfer to the industrial world emerging from the energy transition. Tank Storage Association (TSA) CEO, Peter Davidson, is engaged with the COMAH Strategic Forum (CSF) and chairs the CSF Leadership Working Group. TSA members should, therefore, be familiar with the existing guidance and standards relevant to their operations. But relying on established practices will not be enough to see the major hazards industries safely into the new carbon neutral economy. Looking back over recent decades, the industry has been working with stable and...