A Review of HSE’s Risk Analysis and Protection – Based Analysis Approaches for Land-Use Planning

This report has been prepared by Environmental Resources Management the trading name of Environmental Resources Management Limited, with all reasonable skill, care and diligence within the terms of the Contract with the client, incorporating our General Terms and Conditions of Business and taking account of the resources devoted to it by agreement with the client. We disclaim any responsibility to the client and others in respect of any matters outside the scope of the above. This report is confidential to the client and we accept no responsibility of whatsoever nature to third parties to whom this report, or any part thereof, is made known. Any such party relies on the report at their own risk. The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE's) involvement in land use planning, and the principles on which it bases its advice, is set out in the HSE document " Risk Criteria for Land Use Planning in the vicinity of Major Industrial Hazards " (1). This document was published in 1989 and, therefore, it is over 14 years since the principles in it were determined and agreed. Consequently, HSE undertook a fundamental review (2) (3) of its involvement in land use planning to determine if its approach was still valid, legally robust and in line with broader governmental and European policy. In addition, this review sought to address the expressed concerns of certain external stakeholders that HSE was being too conservative in some of its approaches in this area. The Implementation of the Fundamental Review of Land Use Planning (IFRLUP) project was set up to implement the following recommendations of this review: • the criteria and methodology used for setting planning zones and for " calling in " planning applications should be reviewed and, if necessary, revised and then published; • HSE's advice to local authorities (LAs) on chemical major hazards and pipelines should be further codified so that consistent, transparent and accurate advice can be given without the demand on HSE resources that detailed individual assessment of planning applications requires; and, • the codified generic advice should be devolved to LAs so that they can deal with the vast majority of planning applications which are in the vicinity of chemical major hazards and pipelines. This report forms part of the process by which these aims are being met, constituting a review of the risk analysis and protection based assessment approaches that HSE uses in the course …