International and national standards: benefits, practitioner usage, comments
International and national standards: benefits, practitioner usage, comments
In 2016 the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) enforced a policy on funding of standards development, including adoption of international standards. The new policy also affects joint Australia/New Zealand standards (“joint standards”). In early 2017 Risk Management Ltd realised this would result in non-adoption of at least some risk- and safety-related standards and might also affect development and maintenance of local standards. This has potential for adverse effects on the management of risk and safety. We realised that little was known about usage of such standards by risk management or health and safety practitioners. Accordingly, in June and July 2017 we ran an anonymous online survey of such practitioners, asking about use of current and draft standards, and carried out a literature review of the benefits of standards.
This report summarises the survey findings, including comments made by respondents, and indicates how the MBIE policy may adversely affect the management of risk and safety in New Zealand. The full report is available here.
The survey and literature review show that:
- the government target of a 25% reduction in work health and safety fatalities and serious harm events by 2020 may not be achieved is relevant standards are not adopted or revised
- MBIE funding requirements for standards development, adoption and revision may start to limit those benefits, with long-term adverse consequences for the economy and the safety of workers and others
- progressive withdrawal from development and maintenance of ISO, IEC and joint standards may harm development of the “Single Economic Market” with Australia
- failure to adopt ISO and IEC standards may result in NZ being seen as a poor international partner
- collaboration in the development of joint and international standards on risk and safety management provides access to a wider knowledge base than exists in NZ
- the costs of this collaboration are substantially carried by a few people and organisations (mainly in the private sector) while the benefits accrue across the whole economy
- effective management of risk and safety adds value to the economy both tangibly and intangibly
- respondents see the costs of joint and national standards as high but ISO and IEC standards can be up to twice their cost, making these too expensive for small businesses and consultants to purchase
- the cost of such standards means risk or health and safety practitioners (and, probably, “lay” managers) will continue to rely on their “professional judgement” (known to be highly fallible) instead of the guidance in ISO, IEC and joint standards; as a result NZ will fail to gain the full benefits of effective risk management
- failure to effectively publicise many risk- or safety-related standards means some are not known to potential users.
The following blogs on problems with standards have been published on the Risk Management Ltd website:
Bricks, Screws, and Management Standards by Chris Peace.
Building Standards, risk and life safety by Peter Hughes.