24 April 2023 18:57
The policy of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment is to achieve a healthy, safe and clean living environment, which is also experienced as such by the citizens of the Netherlands: companies operate safely, the living environment is designed safely and citizens feel safe.
There are regulations for this: the Major Accident Hazards Decree 2015 (Brzo). It is based on European Seveso III directive and aims to prevent and control major accidents involving hazardous substances. The Brzo sets requirements for environmental safety, occupational safety and disaster preparedness. Companies covered by this regulation are called Brzo companies. In 2020, 407 Brzo companies were active in the Netherlands.
Since 2011, the State of Security has been presented annually to the House of Representatives of the States General. It provides a picture of efforts and findings on safety from both regulators and industry. See, for example, the summary of the State of Safety 2021.
Knowledge centre: Collected knowledge provides the latest insights on topics agreed upon by parties, has been tested in practice, is easy to implement and leads to measurable improvements.
Innovation centre: Innovation projects closely match the expected needs of parties and lead to rapid implementation and measurable improvements.
We will focus on strengthening the hardware, software and/or mindware around four safety themes. The aim is continuous improvement of the technical and social (process) safety management systems.
Based on the current level of maturity of (process) safety in Dutch industry, the following themes were chosen to jointly bring about further improvements.
- Safety culture and leadership
- Risk | Control | Assurance
- Measuring safety performance and learning from incidents
- Asset Integrity - Process Safety Management
For each theme, areas of expertise have been chosen in which activities will be developed to achieve our ambition.
Dealing with new industrial (process) safety risks such as digitalisation and automation, obsolescence and knowledge loss, cost savings and the energy transition are part of our programme.
Cooperate ....
In the Safety Delta Netherlands, three parties work together structurally, integrally and closely:
- the Industry ((petro)chemical chain of about 300 Brzo companies, other Brzo companies and companies working or participating in this chain);
- The Government (inspection services, policy); and
- Science (universities, colleges and knowledge centres).
The parties are convinced that safety in the (petro)chemical industry can be further improved through structural continuation of the cooperation. This particularly concerns the development and effective implementation of innovative solutions for safety issues and the further accumulation of knowledge in this regard.
This cooperation was laid down in a covenant on 5 October 2020 covenant.
... to achieve our ambition
To achieve our ambition, it is important to determine the current status of safety in the Dutch (petro)chemical industry, to gain insight into the status of the Netherlands compared to industries elsewhere in the world and to respond in a timely manner to expected developments in the area of industrial safety risks.
