Table Of ContentGuidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators for Public Authorities and Communities/Public— ©OECD 2008
This publication is dedicated to
the memory of Jim Makris, for his
leadership, enthusiasm and dedication
to international co-operation regarding
chemical accident prevention,
preparedness and response and, more
specifically, to the OECD Chemical
Accidents Programme.
Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators for Public Authorities and Communities/Public— ©OECD 2008
OECD Environment, Health and
Safety Publications
Series on Chemical Accidents
No. 18
GUIDANCE ON DEVELOPING
SAFETY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
related to Chemical Accident Prevention,
Preparedness and Response
GUIDANCE FOR PUBLIC AUTHORITIES
AND COMMUNITIES/PUBLIC
Environment Directorate
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Paris 2008
Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators for Public Authorities and Communities/Public— ©OECD 2008
Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators for Public Authorities and Communities/Public— ©OECD 2008
About the OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental organisation in
which representatives of 30 industrialised countries in North America, Europe and the Asia and Pacifi c region as well
as the European Commission, meet to co-ordinate and harmonise policies, discuss issues of mutual concern, and work
together to respond to international problems. Most of the OECD’s work is carried out by more than 200 specialised
committees and working groups composed of member country delegates. Observers from several countries with
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which is organised into directorates and divisions.
The Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Division publishes free-of-charge documents in ten different series:
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publications is available on the OECD’s World Wide Web site (www.oecd.org/ehs).
This publication was produced within the framework of the Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound
Management of Chemicals (IOMC).
The Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) was
established in 1995 following recommendations made by the 1992 UN Conference on
Environment and Development to strengthen co-operation and increase international co-
ordination in the field of chemical safety. The Participating Organizations are FAO, ILO, OECD,
UNEP, UNIDO, UNITAR and WHO. The World Bank and UNDP are observers. The purpose of
the IOMC is to promote co-ordination of the policies and activities pursued by the Participating
Organizations, jointly or separately, to achieve the sound management of chemicals in relation
to human health and the environment.
Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators for Public Authorities and Communities/Public— ©OECD 2008 i
This publication is available electronically, at no charge.
For this and many other Environment,
Health and Safety publications, consult the OECD’s
World Wide Website (www.oecd.org/ehs/)
For a list of publications associated with the Chemical Accidents
Programme see page 147 of this document.
or contact:
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ii Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators for Public Authorities and Communities/Public— ©OECD 2008
Acknowledgements
This new Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators (2008) was prepared by an Expert Group with
representatives of member and observer countries, industry, labour, non-governmental organisations and other
international organisations. This Expert Group, under the auspices of the Working Group on Chemical Accidents
(WGCA), was chaired by Kim Jennings (US EPA). The development of the Guidance on SPI has been undertaken
in close co-operation with other international organisations active in the area of chemical accident prevention,
preparedness and response.
The effort to develop this Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators consisted of a number of stages,
starting in 1998 with the establishment of an Expert Group (see below) to explore the possibility of developing a
means for facilitating implementation of the Guiding Principles, and to help stakeholders assess whether actions
taken to enhance safety in fact were achieving desired results. Some of the steps leading to the development of this
Guidance included:
• In 2003, the WGCA developed and published the initial version of the Guidance on Developing Safety
Performance Indicators. The WGCA agreed that this should be published as an “interim” document because it
presented an innovative approach to measuring safety performance. (See text box on the next page.)
• The WGCA established a Pilot Programme to get volunteers from industry, public authorities and
communities to test the Guidance on SPI and provide feedback.
• During the same period as the Pilot Programme, the UK Health and Safety Executive and the Chemical
Industries Association worked with companies in the UK to develop a process for developing a generic model
for establishing process safety indicators. In 2006, they published Developing Process Safety Indicators: A
step-by-step guide for chemical and major hazard industries, setting out a six-step process that can be used by
companies interested in establishing a programme for safety performance measurement.
• Following the Pilot Programme, the WGCA convened a small Group of Experts to review the comments
received as well as to consider related developments, and to revise the Guidance on SPI accordingly.
The Pilot Programme
During the course of the Pilot Programme, feedback was received from participants representing the key stakeholders
groups including industry, public authorities (at national, regional and local levels) and communities. The participants
provided very constructive comments that led to signifi cant changes from the 2003 version of the Guidance on SPI.
The volunteers in the Pilot Programme who provided feedback included: Jean-Paul Lecoursière, Robert Reiss and
Claude Rivet (Canada, public authority/community); Anne-Mari Lähde (Finland, public authority); Remi Parent
(Switzerland, industry); Alberto Susini (Switzerland, public authority); Viki Beckett and Elizabeth Schofi eld (UK,
public authority); Peter Metcalfe (UK, public authority/police); Jonathan Smith (UK, industry); Nigel Taylor and
Graham Kirby (UK, public authority/fi re service); Simon Webb (UK, industry); Ty Lollini (US, industry); and Randal
L. Sawyer (US, public authority).
Group of Experts: Completing the Final Text
The Group of Experts reviewed the feedback from the Pilot Programme participants, and considered other related
developments. As a consequence, they agreed that a number of substantial and editorial changes should be made to the
2003 Guidance, with the most important being:
• the addition of Chapter 2, setting out seven steps for implementing an SPI Programme (building on the
experience in the United Kingdom);
• the creation of two separate publications: one for industry and one for public authorities and communities/
public;
• the drafting of a separate chapter for emergency response personnel, as a subset of public authorities;1 and
• the development of additional guidance on the use of metrics.
1 The impetus for creating this chapter came from the extremely helpful comments from the representatives of the UK police and fi re services. Peter Metcalfe
from the police, who also participated in the Group of Experts, provided invaluable insights and guidance for the further development of the Chapter.
Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators for Public Authorities and Communities/Public— ©OECD 2008 iiii
As a result, the bulk of the 2003 version is now contained in Chapter 3, amended to take into account experience
gained during the four years since the interim Guidance was published.
The Group of Experts included: Jean-Paul Lacoursière and Robert Reiss (Canada, public authority and local
community); Pavel Forint and Milos Palacek (Czech Republic, public authority); Anders Jacobsson (Sweden,
consultant); Elisabeth Schofi eld and Ian Travers (UK, public authority); Peter Metcalfe (UK, Police); Neil
MacNaughton (UK, industry); Nick Berentzen (UK, industry association); Kim Jennings (public authority); Walt
Frank (US, industry); Tim Gablehouse (US, local community); and Bill Michaud and Francine Schulberg (US,
consultants). In addition, Kathy Jones and Dorothy McManus of the US EPA helped to review and edit the text.
A small group was responsible for drafting the text: Chapter 2 and the Annex on metrics was prepared by Bill
Michaud (US, consultant); and Chapter 3 was prepared by Anders Jacobsson (Sweden) for the Industry text; Kim
Jennings (US) for the Public Authorities text; and Jean-Paul Lacoursière, Robert Reiss and Eric Clément (Canada), for
the Communities text. Francine Schulberg was responsible for preparing Chapter 1, compiling the annexes and editing
the document. Peter Kearns and Marie-Chantal Huet (OECD Secretariat) assumed an oversight role throughout the
process, under the supervision of Robert Visser.
The preparation of the Guidance on SPI was made possible by extra-budgetary contributions from Australia, Austria,
Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
The 2003 “Interim” Guidance on SPI
The impetus for developing this document was a suggestion in 1998 by the delegate from France (Marcel Chapron)
that the Working Group should develop indicators to facilitate implementation of the Guiding Principles and to
better understand the impacts on safety of different elements of the Guiding Principles.
The Working Group established an Expert Group on Safety Performance Indicators. This Group that developed
the “interim” version of the Guidance on SPI (2003), was chaired by Kim Jennings (United States), and included
Wayne Bissett, Eric Clément, Jean-Paul Lacoursière and Robert Reiss (Canada); Jukka Metso (Finland); Marcel
Chapron, David Hourtolou and Olivier Salvi (France); Frauke Druckrey and Mark Hailwood (Germany); Paola de
Nictolis, Roberta Gagliardi, Giancarlo Ludovisi, Natale Mazzei and Raffaele Scialdoni (Italy); Jen-Soo Choi, Soon-
Joong Kang, Jae-Kyum Kim, Ki-Young Kim, Hyuck Myun Kwon and Sueng-Kyoo Pak (Korea); H.S. Hiemstra, Joy
Oh and Eveline van der Stegen (the Netherlands); Mieczyslaw Borysiewicz and Barbara Kucnerowicz Polak (Poland);
Josef Skultety (Slovak Republic); Anders Jacobsson (Sweden); David Bosworth (United Kingdom); Kim Jennings,
Kathy Jones, Francine Schulberg and Robert Smerko (United States); Juergen Wettig (European Commission); Sigal
Blumenfeld (Israel); Simon Cassidy, Stephen Coe and Willem Patberg (Business and Industry Advisory Committee
to the OECD); Ralph Arens, Roland Fendler, Angelika Horster, Apostoslos Paralikas and Mara Silina (European
Environmental Bureau); and Reg Green and Brian Kohler (Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD). In
addition, Dafina L. Dalbokova and Dorota Jarosinka (World Health Organization-European Centre for Environment
and Health) participated in the review process. The three main sections of the SPI Guidance were drafted by
Anders Jacobsson (Sweden) for Part A on Industry; Kim Jennings (United States) for Part B on Public Authorities;
and Jean-Paul Lacoursière, Robert Reiss and Eric Clément (Canada), for Part C on Communities. Francine Schulberg
(OECD Consultant) was responsible for writing the introductory sections, compiling the annexes and editing the
document. Peter Kearns, Béatrice Grenier and Marie-Chantal Huet (OECD Secretariat) assumed an oversight role
throughout the process, under the supervision of Robert Visser.
iv Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators for Public Authorities and Communities/Public— ©OECD 2008
