Date/Time
Date(s) - 21/01/2025
5:00 pm - 6:15 pm
Categories
Communicating risk – what, who, why does it matter
Joint Hazards Forum / Parliamentary and Scientific Committee Webinar, 21st January 2025 at 1700 – 1815
Overview
As technologies play an ever-increasing part in people’s lives, there is a continuing need to involve those people in the trade-offs that are inherent – the benefits weighed against the disbenefits. Key to this is the appropriate communication of risk; at this Hazards Forum sponsored event, speakers will discuss how scientists, engineers, parliamentarians, among others, can communicate risk well, how best to describe the necessary trade-offs in time and consequence, societal tolerability of risk and the language used in the public domain. We hope to prompt participation by and discussion across many sectors, to share good ideas and recognise pitfalls.
The Hazards Forum’s mission is to enable interdisciplinary learning between professionals for the prevention and mitigation of hazards and disasters. We believe that deliberation and decision-making about risk shouldn’t be confined to risk professionals. A wider audience of stakeholders – including the public where appropriate – needs to share their views on how to assess and manage risk.
Areas the speakers will cover:
- How should scientists, engineers and other technical experts approach communication of risk in the public domain?
- How should parliamentarians approach communication of risk in the public domain?
- What should parliamentarians ask about risk?
- Trade-offs of dissimilar risks and dissimilar risk-timeframes
- Societal tolerability of risks, “dread risks”, non-linearity of risk tolerability
- The difference between uncertainty and risk
- There is no such thing as zero risk
- The language of “safety” in the public domain
Speakers
Richard Roff, Process Safety Director, Costain Group PLC & Chair of Hazards Forum Interest Group on Engineered Systems Risks
Talk title: Ten to the minus six: like that’s ever going to happen!
Reflections on the internal and external language of risks, tolerability and trade-offs from Hazards Forum interest groups
Bio:
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. 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.
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.
Dr Helen Meese, Founder and CEO of The Care Machine Ltd
Talk title: First do no harm
Addressing the communication of risk in the healthcare sector
Bio: Prof. Helen Meese is an award-winning chartered mechanical engineer with over 20 years’ experience in industry and academia. She is CEO of The Care Machine, an engineering consultancy that works with early-stage innovators to develop medical technology and services. Some of her clients include NHS England, University of Sheffield, Loughborough University and University of Cambridge. She delivers training and workshop sessions to medtech businesses and healthcare practitioners; accelerating collaboration and creating positive engagement. Helen is an accomplished public affairs and policy specialist; providing consultation and thought leadership to Government, industry, and the public sector on engineering and its contribution to health & care. She is passionate about all aspects of STEM and provides mentoring and coaching to young engineers as well as being the host of the IMechE’s engineering podcast, Impulse to Innovation. She is Immediate Past Chair of the IMechE’s Biomedical Engineering Division and a past Trustee, an Entrepreneur in Residence at Durham University Business School, a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Healthcare Policy Topic Group, Vice-Chair of the SBRI healthcare panel and a Health Foundation Q Community member.
Anne Davies, Partner, FisherBroyles (UK) LLP
Talk title: ‘It will never happen to us’
Changing mindsets to ‘it could happen to us’ to create a culture of chronic unease’
Bio: Anne is a Business crime lawyer with a focus on health and safety. She has handled a broad range of regulatory investigations and prosecutions over the last 31 years, assisting both companies and individuals to minimise the risk facing them through criminal liabilities arising from internal or external investigations.
Anne advises Boards of Directors and has developed a range of training programmes and tools to help Directors understand their responsibilities in the context of health and safety. She assists Boards to understand how to deal with crisis situations should they occur. She runs an innovative training programme which involves role play with Directors undergoing a simulated interview under caution, so participants can experience the reality of an external criminal investigation. She assists businesses to capture lessons from incidents and near misses enabling them to support a continuous improvement strategy. Clients and peers praise her practical and proactive approach in providing this Board-level advice, such that she is regarded as a trusted adviser. Anne sits as a special advisory to a safety board and was for 6yrs up to June 2019 a Council Member of Aberystwyth University holding various committee roles to include audit and risk; health and safety and Governance.
Chambers and Partners (a directory that ranks lawyers) stated “Anne Davies has significant experience in the health and safety market.”
Please note: We will share your name and email address with the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee to allow them to send you the link for joining the webinar.
Bookings
Bookings are closed for this event.
