'DEMONSTRATION' UNDER COMAH - PROBLEMS AND PARTNERSHIP

摘要

The introduction of the COMAH (SEVESO II) regulations into the UK has proved a major undertaking both for the companies required to write new Safety Reports and for the regulators who are required to assess them. The regulations introduce a number of new requirements but one has proved particularly troublesome to both regulated and regulator -the concept of "demonstration". Although the Competent Authority (HSE, SEPA and EA) were able to offer some assistance with what was to be expected in the "demonstration of safe operation" by an operator, the concept has proved difficult for many. The CA have been refining their ideas in the light of the first submissions and operators have been trying to decide both how to demonstrate safe operation and what level of detail is required in the Safety Report to make it acceptable to the CA. To answer this problem the UK Chemical Industries Association (CIA) and the CA ran a joint workshop in March 2001 to produce four worked examples of demonstration. The aim of the workshop was to produce a consensus view of what constitutes an acceptable demonstration, both to operators and to the CA. The demonstrations were to be made available to operators to help them in writing Safety Reports and were to be used by the regulators as examples of acceptable practice. In the event it did not prove possible to write the demonstrations in the time available. Consensus was reached on a number of points which it was agreed were required, but on other matters, operators and the CA were not able to agree the level of detail which it is reasonable to require in a Safety Report. The conclusions of the four working groups at the workshop are being collated and are discussed here. They will be jointly published by HSE and CIA and will be available by the time of the Hazards XVI conference. This rest of the paper discusses some problems operators have been having with the COMAH Regulations. It also discusses the problems operators have encountered in writing COMAH safety reports, especially the "demonstration" of safe operation, and the ways the regulators have worked with operators to overcome these problems.