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Event Report
The Management of Health & Safety in Offshore Pipelaying
September 1999, Selsdon Park, UK
IMCA and the UK Health and Safety Executive hosted a two-day seminar on The Management of Health & Safety in Offshore Pipelaying in late September 1999. Representatives from leading pipelay contractor members of IMCA and key inspectors from HSE met together to discuss health and safety matters.
The seminar provided a useful open forum, enabling IMCA members to meet and discuss areas of common interest and for IMCA contractors and HSE inspectors to engage in an open and broad exchange of views and information. In particular, the seminar had four aims:
- To present HSE’s approach to its main priorities for the industry of effective health and safety management, machinery guarding and safe systems of work and occupational health;
- To provide an understanding of what an HSE inspector looks for when carrying out an inspection of a pipelay company;
- To provide an opportunity for IMCA members to discuss their approach to health and safety;
- To achieve a greater mutual understanding on key issues.
A range of speakers from industry and government/regulatory bodies spoke on the following topics:
- Introduction, Aims and Objectives
- How Accidents Happen
- Trial & Tribulations: Success and Failure in Changing Safety Culture
- Safe Systems of Work and Guarding Machinery
- Occupational Health - Too Difficult to Manage?
- An Inspector Calls: What an HSE Inspector looks for
- Proactive Safety Monitoring
- Safety in Rigid Pipelaying
Machinery Guarding
One of the key sessions of the seminar concentrated on machinery guarding. HSE intimated their intention to focus inspections on the need for adequate guarding on pipelay strings. Examples of recent guarding systems installed in such locations were used to demonstrate what was being accomplished.
IMCA members felt that a further workshop on this topic could provide a forum to help develop industry guidance on appropriate guarding arrangements.
Management of Change
With regard to the management of change and behavioural issues, members recognised that the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of people have a major influence on safety performance. The seminar heard how two member companies were approaching this issue with the aim of helping to modify workers' behaviour so that safety performance will improve.
Again, members felt that a further workshop on this issue would be useful, both to provide a greater understanding of how to approach the issue and to share individual company experiences of developing such approaches. It was agreed that the current work being undertaken within IMCA aimed at improved safety performance should be progressed as a matter of urgency. This work would include a review of recommendations for improved standardisation of accident statistics collected by IMCA.
Occupational Health
In its presentation on this topic, the HSE expert stated that it was aiming to raise the profile of occupational health in the offshore sector. Ways to improve the management of occupational health were discussed and useful examples of protective equipment were highlighted.
A set of summary proceedings is available to members from the IMCA office.
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