In 2010 we completed the roll-out of a programme of to replace our existing company health and safety standards with DNV’s International Safety Rating System, 8th edition (ISRS 8). DNV is a global, independent foundation that specialises in services for managing risks to people, property and the environment.
ISRS 8 involves a detailed assessment of a business unit’s performance against 15 key processes, as follows:
- Leadership
- Planning and administration
- Risk evaluation
- Human resources
- Compliance assurance
- Project management
- Training and competence
- Communication and promotion
- Risk control
- Asset management
- Contractor management and purchasing
- Emergency preparedness
- Learning from events
- Risk monitoring
- Results and review.
The ISRS 8th edition includes specific controls needed for managing process related events and can also be used to assess other elements of sustainability and social responsibility, such as quality and environmental performance.
Also included are updates to reflect changes in international standards including OHSAS 18001:2007, ISO 9001:2008 and Global Reporting Initiative 2006.
We completed the roll-out of ISRS 8 across our businesses during the year, along with the first round of external assessments. However, the baseline results were not available in time to publish them in the 2010 CSR Annual Review.
We intend to publish these results in our 2011 CSR Annual Review. The next round of assessments against ISRS 8 will be carried out in Autumn 2012.
ISRS 8 is a completely different system to our previous 12 Group Health & Safety Standards and so we will be unable to provide comparative data from previous years. However, as the system is widely used, it offers us the possibility of benchmarking our performance against similar organisations in the future.
Our baseline results will be used to drive management plans and objectives within the businesses and provide a strong impetus for continuous improvement in health and safety performance.
Specific health and safety auditing and inspections are undertaken regularly by the businesses, as part of their health and safety management systems.