ABSTRACT
During the 1990s, a significant growth in the use of risk ideas, especially risk assessment, took place within United Kingdom Government departments and agencies (McQuaid, 1995). A new cross-departmental body, the Interdepartmental Liaison Group on Risk Assessment (ILGRA), which included participation by the Home Office and the Department of Health, came into being and made a significant contribution to co-ordinating this process. Around this time, several important factors contributed to building an awareness in UK government circles of the need to improve risk handling practices: a number of high profile controversies, including the one concerning the Brent Spar oil platform, and the crisis over BSE and British beef, concentrated the minds of those in government, as well as ringing alarm bells throughout the corporate world.
