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Health and Safety ‘League Table’ Plan for Oil and Gas Companies

United Kingdom
06/11/2007
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Proposals to publish league tables, ranking oil and gas companies according to their health and safety performance, are being considered by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Supporters claim the proposals could make the North Sea a safer place to work, but there are fears that the scheme could amount to mere ‘naming and shaming’.

Ian Whewell, head of the HSE’s offshore safety division, has approached the representative organisation for the industry, Oil & Gas UK, with the proposal. He claims that public disclosure would help ensure companies try even harder to improve their health and safety record. The HSE is currently prevented from disclosing the information without the permission of the industry. Oil & Gas UK consider benchmarking to be a very useful tool but “it needs to be applied carefully with the intention to encourage performance improvement…a simple process of naming and shaming could have negative results”.

Some MPs and union officials have given the initiative support, suggesting that a league table would give companies a further incentive to ensure high levels of health and safety are maintained offshore. However some feel that the publication of the tables would have little to contribute, and could be counter-productive. It remains to be seen whether the Government will back the proposals.

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