MOD publishes report on 2009 safety concerns

MOD published their key corporate health and safety report for 2009 which has been provided to me in response to an FOI request.

MOD have identified a number of key themes that have emerged from 2009, they are:

"• The pressure that resource constraints are placing on safety and the need to ensure that decisions with safety implications are taken at the right level.

• A continuing shortage of personnel, both those with the necessary safety qualifications and those with sufficient experience to discharge their safety responsibilities.

• Concern over the cumulative effects of change, in particular personnel moves resulting in a dilution of available experience and competence."

Nuclear safety
"A key area of concern highlighted by the report is that it will become increasingly difficult to maintain that the defence nuclear programmes are being managed with due regard for the protection of the workforce, the public and the environment. The key areas of concern for the medium term are the sufficiency of resources, both money and staff complement, and the maintenance of a suitable cadre of suitably competent staff (RN, MOD civilians and industry partners)."

Explosive safety
"The condition of the explosives estate remains a primary concern for the Board, with the potential for significant vulnerability. The consequences of an explosive incident could have a significant impact on capability, and the potential off-site (public domain) consequences could have serious implications for the Department. Risk against compliance with MOD Regulations is increasing and, if agreed, a higher level of risk (including aggregated risks) may have to be accepted on resource grounds."

Defence plan 2010-14
It is interesting to note that the section 7 of the Defence Plan 2010-14 makes no specific mention of the serious safety issues raised in the DESB 2009 report in relation to either nuclear or explosive safety. It would seem that these issues appear to have been filtered out.