| Targeted risk based approaches to compliance assessment
WRc, the water and environment consultancy is conducting a research project aimed at improving the understanding of the relationship between regulatory inspections and compliance on behalf of the Scotland & Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research (‘SNIFFER’).
SNIFFER commissioned the study to improve its understanding of the relationship between inspections by the regulators and compliance by regulated organisations. The outcome will be that regulators – SEPA in Scotland and EHS in Northern Ireland (NI) – may be able to manage inspections more effectively. Research shows that the notion that increased frequency of inspection leads to increased compliance only appears to be supported by anecdotal evidence. This has not been clearly or unequivocally demonstrated and the literature indicates that other aspects could explain the level of, and variation in, compliance; for example: the industrial sector to which the company belongs, the company’s culture, the size of the company or the site, the time since its last inspection, the presence in the vicinity of a company/site from the same sector which has been found non-compliant, and the time (season) of the inspection.
A previous study on compliance scheme development options, published in May 2006, looked at the way other Scottish and European organisations deal with compliance management and summarised the potential implications. However, to SNIFFER’s knowledge, there has not been any study in Scotland or NI of the type currently underway which has the objectives of:
- providing an understanding of the relationship between inspections and compliance, through studying available SEPA and EHS data relating to three regulatory regimes (water, waste and PPC); and,
- in the light of that understanding, making recommendations on how the regulators could improve compliance by (i) modifying the way they inspect (focusing on the quality and type of inspection to maximise compliance improvement, which may vary from sector to sector), and (ii) assessing improved ways of storing data and monitoring compliance.
Further details of this research is available from the SNIFFER website www.sniffer.org.uk, search code UKCC20, or by contacting Amber Moss,
Tel: 0131 557 2140, Email: amber@sniffer.org.uk.
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