All IG workshop – Cascading and Interconnected Hazards – Manchester, 9 October

Presentations

Harry Moss, Technical Lead, EEMUA

Introduction to our topic: cascading and interconnected hazards 

Roger Kemp, Emeritus Professor, Lancaster University

Roger Kemp spent most of his working life in the rail industry, his most recent role being UK Technical & Safety Director of Alstom Transport. Following retirement, he spent 15 years as a Professorial Fellow in Lancaster University, when he worked mainly on energy issues. After a second retirement, he was appointed an Emeritus Professor.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and has been heavily involved on their work on energy policy and the safety of complex systems. Following Storm Desmond in December 2015 when Lancaster lost its electricity supply, he chaired a conference on the effects on dependent systems.   https://raeng.org.uk/media/xrrigg0m/raeng-living-without-electricity.pdf

Discussion 1: Assessing hazards – are current methods appropriate?

Richard Roff, Professional Process Safety Engineer, Group Process Safety Director, Costain Group PLC

Richard is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers working as Costain’s Group Process Safety Director.  Based in the Northeast of England, he advises the group and its clients on the strategic implementation of process safety management across all sectors and service lines but with particular focus on contracts with catastrophic incident potential.  He leads for the group on incident investigation and is also involved in auditing, defining company guidance and education in process safety and leadership.

Since May 2015, Richard has also been Chair of the UK Process Safety Management Competence Programme Board which originated in the National Skills Academy – Process Industries and formed one of industry’s responses to the Buncefield Investigation following the explosions in December 2005.

In 2021, Richard joined the technical advisory committee of the Hazards Forum where he chairs the interest group on Engineered Systems Hazards – those that result from the failure of engineered equipment, constructions, products, processes or of systems of these, or in the control of these.

Richard became a Chartered Mechanical Engineer having graduated from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and trained with ICI; he is also a Professional Process Safety Engineer.  He joined Costain in 2013 having worked before then in the petrochemicals, chemicals and steel industries for business of ICI, DuPont, Croda and Tata Steel.  In these, Richard held roles in asset integrity, maintenance management, projects management, process safety and organisational consultancy and was also involved in business strategy, business purchases and new business integration.  His work has taken him to many countries in Europe, South and South East Asia and to the US.

Andy Abu Bakar, Group Risk and Assurance Director, Costain

Andy Abu-Bakar is Director of Group Risk and Assurance at Costain Group PLC. He leads the central risk and assurance team, supporting the business in managing risk and providing assurance on cross-functional controls. Andy is a Certificate Member of the Institute of Risk Management and a Chartered Engineer, with experience in programme management, project controls and commercial risk management across infrastructure, defence and aerospace sectors. Andy’s technical interests are developing effective risk culture, integrating risk into decision making and designing commercial arrangements which promote active management of risk through collaboration.

Discussion 2: Overcoming limitations of data availability 

Dr Jana Sillmann, Professor of Climate Statistics and Climate Extremes, University of Hamburg

Jana Sillmann is Professor for Climate Extremes at the University of Hamburg (Germany) and Senior Researcher at the Center for International Climate Research – Oslo (Norway). Her work focuses on relating physical aspects of weather and climate extremes to socio-economic impacts and questions related to risk assessment and decision-making. She is co-chairing the Knowledge Action Network on Emergent Risks and Extreme Events (Risk KAN) Working Group on Climate Risk Modeling for the Financial Sector. She previously was co-leading activities of the WCRP Grand Challenge on Weather and Climate Extremes and was a Lead Author of Chapter 12 “Climate change information for regional impact and for risk assessment” in IPCC AR6 WG1.

Katie Barnes, Executive Director, National Preparedness Commission

Katie Barnes is Executive Director of the National Preparedness Commission (NPC), joining around 18 months after the Commission’s first meeting was held in November 2020.  NPC is an independent, non-political body whose mission is to promote better preparedness in the UK for major shocks, disruptions and stresses.  A natural ‘big picture’ thinker, Katie is confident when dealing with ambiguity and complexity, and skilled at revealing and navigating conflicting agendas. Her driving motivation is to understand how a system works and ensure that it is fit for purpose – that motivation means she is never afraid to ask difficult questions or to question perceived boundaries and limitations.  She has held senior strategy and consulting roles in private, academic and not-for-profit sectors.

Discussion 3: Knowledge sharing

David Quincey, Climate Change Adaptation Manager, Network Rail

David is Network Rail’s Climate Change Adaptation Manager working to deliver a railway that is safe and resilient to the effects of weather, both now and in the future. He is working to integrate the understanding and consideration of climate change risk and adaptive action into the organisation including identifying and developing research projects, integration into business-as-usual decision-making processes, developing costing and prioritisation methodologies for adaptation actions, the provision of expert knowledge and oversight and managing stakeholder relationships across the rail sector, government and beyond.

David has 15 years’ experience in the field of climate change adaptation, eight with Network Rail and the previous seven with Anglian Water. He is passionate about environmental issues and has spent the last 27 years in a variety of environment related roles in the infrastructure sector.

Brychan Corrigan, Safety Case Engineer, EDF

Brychan Corrigan is a Safety Case Engineer with EDF Energy, supporting operation at Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station with over a decade of experience in process safety, risk assessment, and safety case development across the civil nuclear, petrochemical, and renewable industries. Starting as a graduate chemical engineer at Fawley Refinery supporting day-to-day challenges of plant operations, she moved into consultancy, working with clients across the energy sector, and utilised a range of risk assessment methodologies (HAZOP, HAZID, BowTie, Hazard and Effects Register (HER), Fault Tree, and ALARP reviews) to support the development of safety cases for high-hazard facilities. With a specialisation in hazards safety cases, she is actively engaged in incorporating the ongoing research and development of best available technologies and methodologies from across the energy industry (and other sectors) to the unique challenges of nuclear safety.