ABSTRACT
Independent Safety Review The Principles of a Review The two main objectives of having any kind of review are firstly, to check that the work undertaken to date is correct enough to be of value for the purpose. Secondly, to get some feedback and advice from the reviewer with pointers as to what has been good and what needs more attention. I was once involved in a personal motivation exercise where two people from the group were asked to leave the room, the remainder were told that when each returned they would be given an object to pass on to an unidentified individual. The first volunteer would be ‘coached’ by the room-based group by being told ‘no’ when they didn’t do the correct thing. The second volunteer would be ‘coached’ by the room-based group by being told ‘no’ when they did the wrong thing, but also ‘yes’ when they made a correct action. When the first volunteer came back, they had no idea what they were supposed to do, received only negative comments, quickly realised the situation and just sat at the front of the room. The second volunteer also had no idea what they were supposed to do, but as they nervously bobbed about at the front, they picked up the positive signs when they ‘bobbed’ towards the unidentified person they were to give the object to. It took about four minutes. This is an example of real-time review in action and actually working, everyone took important lessons from this, and I suggest you try it sometime. How Independent is ‘Independent’? There still is a great deal of debate about how independent an independent review has to be, and there are two opposing factors to consider in this discussion. Firstly, the reviewer must be independent enough to be able to provide an expert, professional opinion without vulnerability to commercial, project or other corporate pressures [Froome 2005]. Secondly, the reviewer must not be so independent as to be essentially unaware of the details of the project systems and their operation. Levels of required independence may be set for levels of project risk profile, project size or project sensitivity. At the lowest level of independence is the co-worker from the same team. The levels then progress through a scale up to personnel having different ‘controlling-mind’ directors and even being from an independent company altogether, although this last level can give rise to commercial difficulties. The company receiving the audit should not have to accept a reviewer from a competitor organisation, it is far better for a mutually acceptable reviewer to be chosen at the start of a project, rather than have difficult arguments when it comes to the first review or audit.
