An important element of any Safety Management System is the identification of hazards, the evaluation of these hazards and the application of suitable controls. We discuss the benefits of running a HAZID workshop.

An important element of any Safety Management System is the identification of hazards, the evaluation of these hazards and the application of suitable controls. The Port Marine Safety Code recognises that organisations should “seek to maintain a consensus about safe navigation in its harbour or facility with users and service providers as far as possible.”

An effective way to identify and raise known and potential marine hazards relating to marine operations within a port’s jurisdictional area, is to hold a Hazard Identification Workshop; often referred to as a HAZID exercise.

One of the main benefits of conducting a HAZID workshop is to gather the port community and work towards consensus on safety of port marine operations. To achieve this, a range of stakeholders from the port community should be invited, including:

• Port and harbour operational staff
• Commercial users
• Recreational users
• Commercial fishing users
• Marine service providers, such as towage operators, workboats or bunker providers
• Emergency response providers

The outcomes of the workshop can be tailored to meet the port or harbour’s activities, identification of hazards, description of the potential consequences and causes being standard outputs. The workshop may also be used to consider the mitigation currently in place to control risk, further mitigation that could be adopted and quantification of the effectiveness of this mitigation. Where appropriate these outcomes should be incorporated into the formal marine risk assessments at the port.

ABPmer has experience with planning and running HAZID workshops and can compile outputs into a format that will allow the results to be shared with stakeholders and input into current risk assessments. Through our previous experience we have created a process for running a workshop to ensure relevant information is recorded and can be used with current marine risk assessments.

Prepared by Adam Fitzpatrick, Maritime Specialist

For more information, to book a HAZID workshop with ABPmer, please email us or call Monty Smedley on +44 (0)23 8071 1892.