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The UK’s energy leaders have been challenged to improve how they approach process safety improvement programmes after a new, extensive, study found that it was the number one gap for influencing process safety leadership capability.  

The findings by independent global assurance and risk management consultancy, Scapa Energy, involved more than 250 safety leaders, and comes ahead of an expected focus on the issue by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The study also follows an energy industry initiative to embed the Principles of Process Safety Leadership.

As part of a programme to support energy industry leaders to have robust Process Safety Improvement Plans in place, Scapa Energy developed a detailed study, to benchmark companies against the Offshore Energy UK’s Principles of Process Safety Leadership to enable organisations to identify areas for improvement as well as areas where they were performing well.

The consultancy interviewed more than 250 energy leaders, across more than 11 operators and tier-one supply chain companies, collecting 420 hours of data on leadership behaviours and process safety performance.  Each participant answered 17 standardised questions which enabled anonymised heatmaps to be created to represent how well these leaders grasp core process safety leadership principles, categorised by Leadership, Engagement, Assurance and Performance, and Shared Learning.

The interviews and analyses were part of Scapa Energy’s three-phase approach to supporting companies within high-risk industries to strengthen process safety leadership capability. The approach spans management system reviews and benchmarking, leadership engagement and assurance, and operating discipline and site practices. Anonymised data is used to benchmark industry performance while individual and company-specific reports are created to help operators and individuals address identified gaps.

The results found that the greatest gap in process safety leadership is workforce engagement during the creation and implementation of process safety improvement programmes followed by managing the risk associated with activity that is outsourced to third-party contractors and vendors.

The top six gap areas identified during the study were:

1. Engaging the workforce during the creation and implementation of process safety improvement programmes
2. Managing third party contractors and vendors
3. Retaining corporate knowledge
4. Awareness of process safety risks
5. Learning from incidents and audits
6. Training across all areas of process safety.

Graham Walker, Director of Scapa Energy, said: “Over the last 36 months the team has engaged with more than 250 leaders across 11 teams, held 185 engagement sessions, and collected 420 hours of data on leadership behaviours and process safety performance. This wealth of information allows us to produce individualised reports, team-level analyses, and anonymised industry benchmarks that provide invaluable insight into leadership effectiveness.”

Bruce Webb, Associate Director at Scapa Energy commented: “Our proprietary data-driven models allow us to identify recurring themes, such as gaps in Process Safety Improvement Programs, contractor risk management, and knowledge retention. Conversely, we’ve also identified strong leadership behaviours, positive engagement with process safety management systems, and a deep understanding of safety culture from top to bottom in the most successful organisations.

“The heat map shows that there is a small sliver of dark blue for organisational engagement – much like clear blue water – between a company’s good day and a very bad day. The orange line can be viewed as leaders being close to the fire. Currently, many organisations need to put much more clear water between themselves and a bad day by closing these gaps. This has been recognised by the Health and Safety Executive and we expect to see the robustness of process safety improvement programmes coming under increased scrutiny in the coming year.”

While there are clear areas for improvement, the findings have also highlighted numerous areas where companies are performing well within process safety leadership. These included:

1. Demonstrating positive process safety leadership behaviours
2. Process safety management arrangements
3. Developing a process safety leadership culture
4. Ensuring process safety is understood at all levels of the organisation
5. Communicating with stakeholders and regulators

Graham Skinner, Health & Safety Manager at Offshore Energies UK said: “The Scapa Energy dataset is an unparalleled resource that supports the delivery of a targeted and effective industry-wide response to improving process safety leadership.  The data enables us to ensure that good practice is shared and benchmarked, while targeting areas where improvement is required.  The information shared by Scapa Energy helps ensures OEUK members are on the front foot as they develop their individual company approach to process safety leadership and supports effective engagement with regulators.”

Mr Walker added: “We’re delighted that this has been recognised as an influential piece of work by OEUK. Our findings have been positively embraced by the participants and without exception every engagement has had a positive outcome. We set-out to help energy leaders develop safer work environments for their people and assets and its rewarding to see that taking effect.”

With 2025 on the horizon, Scapa Energy is helping companies to meet the expectation of continuous improvement in process safety leadership by supporting development of rolling risk-based process safety improvement plans. By leveraging its phased approach which draws on the Principles of Process Safety Leadership and the Energy Institute Process Safety Framework, it helps organisations to make meaningful improvements in process safety leadership with actionable insights.