Improvements in the operations of authorities in relation to

In the interviews of the first Delphi round, many development suggestions arose with the help of which, the experts estimated that the authorities would be able to improve their operations in relation to company preparedness. It was attempted to test the importance of these development suggestions from the perspective of improving safety.

The experts were asked to assess the importance of 12 different factors in developing authority operations regarding preparedness to major accidents in the short- and long-term. The experts chose 3 out of the 12 factors that they thought were the most important development suggestions in both the short-term (1–2 years) and long-term perspective. The 12 development suggestions raised for assessment are listed below:

 Developing the interoperability of the IT systems of different authorities

 Backup system development

 Increasing the authorities’ resources

 Improving the area knowledge of authorities on industrial sites

 Securing the quality of the cooperation between the authorities and the companies so that cooperation is not bound to personal relations

 Authorities to take a more active part in company rescue drills

 Improving expertise of the authorities with the help of training (e.g. chemical knowledge)

 Readiness of the authorities to utilize municipal IT systems from the perspective of companies’ hazardous situations

 Improving the preparedness of the authorities to make use of companies’ IT systems

 Securing the cooperation between the authorities in a way that successful cooperation is not bound to personal relations

 Shifting the focus in authority operations more to advisory and preventive activities

 Taking into account the local relevance of the companies when prioritizing preparedness

6.1.6.1 Improvements in the operations of authorities in relation to company preparedness, short-term

According to the view of the experts, the most important factors to develop regarding authority operations in the short term (Figure 26) were:

1. Authorities to take a more active part in company rescue drills (51 % had ranked this in their top three)

2. Securing the cooperation between the authorities in a way that successful cooperation is not bound to personal relations

3. Shifting the focus in authority operations more towards advisory and preventive activities

4. Developing the interoperability of the IT systems of different authorities 5. Developing backup systems

6. Improving the area knowledge of authorities on industrial sites.

In the short-term development of authority operations, the experts emphasized the increase and improvement of cooperation between authorities and companies. Effective collaboration was considered vital because good results are not achieved in safety if only one of the parties improves safety operations.

The experts raised especially the issue of common rescue drills as a natural and an important way of improving cooperation. With the help of rescue drills, maintaining critical operations from the perspective of society can be practiced. Also the effectiveness of different kinds of preparedness operations can be tested.

Securing cooperation between the authorities in a way that successful cooperation is not bound to personal relations was the second most important issue and shifting the focus in authority operations more towards advisory and preventive activities the third most important.

Another important theme that should be developed in the short-term perspective was felt by the experts to be developing the interoperability of the authorities’ IT systems because interoperability is important from the point of view of both safety and cost.

Two themes arose as the fifth most important for development in the short term: Backup system development and improving the regional knowledge of authorities on industrial sites. Both themes were mentioned 11 times.

Figure 26 Improvements in the operations of authorities in relation to company preparedness, short-term

When assessed by respondent group, it is clear that the representatives of the rescue and regulatory authorities placed more stress than the other respondent groups on ensuring the quality of cooperation in particular between the authorities and the companies so that it was not person-dependent (53 % of representatives of rescue and regulative authorities). One expert argued:

”Scarce resources are leading to increased cooperation between authorities and companies. Resources of either sector are not sufficient alone, therefore reasonable allocation of resources is essential.”

The rescue and regulatory authorities were also the group that placed most emphasis on the development of backup systems (38 % of their representatives). In contrast, regarding development of authority operations, they placed less emphasis than the other groups on more active participation in company rescue drills, although over a third of this group also placed active participation among their top three themes for improvement. One argument was:

“There must be backup systems at all levels. Also, personal substitutes are necessary: Too often there is a situation where the necessary expertise is not available.”

The companies put a strong emphasis on more active participation by the authorities in company rescue drills (64 % of company experts) as one of the most important themes for improvement in the operations of the authorities. The company representatives also pointed to the development of the interoperability of various authorities’ IT systems more than other respondent groups as a key theme for improvement (42 % of company experts). In contrast, companies felt slightly less strongly than the other respondent groups about ensuring quality of cooperation between authorities and the companies so that successful cooperation was not person-dependent. Nevertheless, ensuring quality of cooperation between the authorities and business life was the fourth most important development theme among company experts regarding the operations of the authorities.

The stakeholders’ answers were distributed on the whole much the same as the average answers for all the respondent groups. Out of the five development themes with the most mentions, the stakeholders placed slightly less emphasis than the other groups on improving the authorities’ local knowledge of the plant site. The theme for development that the stakeholders emphasized slightly more than the other groups was ensuring that successful cooperation between authorities was not person-dependent (25 % of stakeholder experts).

Stakeholders also placed slightly more emphasis than the other groups on the readiness of the authorities to utilize existing municipal IT systems in relation to dangerous situations (25 % of stakeholder experts).

6.1.6.2 Improvements in the operations of authorities in relation to the preparedness of the companies, long-term

The experts were also asked to assess the same development suggestions concerning preparedness for major accidents in the long-term perspective. According to the experts, the most important factors that would develop authority operations in the long term (Figure 27) were:

1. Shifting the focus in authority operations more to advisory and preventive activities

2. Securing the cooperation between the authorities in a way that successful cooperation is not bound to personal relations

3. Developing the interoperability of the IT systems of different authorities 4. Readiness of the authorities to make use of the IT systems already existing

in the municipalities from the point of view of companies’ hazardous situations

5. Backup system development

6. Securing the quality of the cooperation between the authorities and the companies so that cooperation is not bound to personal relations

Also in the long-term perspective, the experts emphasized development of the cooperation between the authorities and the companies and improving preventive activities.

The experts emphasized especially shifting the focus in authority operations more towards advisory and preventive actions and developing the cooperation between different parties in a way that successful cooperation is not bound to personal relations. The cooperation must be open and aimed at a common goal.

In the long-term perspective, the experts also emphasized development work on IT systems. Both the interoperability of IT systems between different authorities and the readiness of the authorities to make use of the IT systems of municipalities was raised as an important theme on developing preparedness for major accidents.

Backup system development was highlighted as the fifth most important theme to be developed. It was raised as an important theme both in short- and long-term development work. For example, deputy personnel systems can be developed in a very short-term perspective and cost-effective technical solutions can be developed in a long-term perspective.

In particular, the representatives of the rescue and regulatory authorities emphasized development activities related to information systems development in the longer term. They felt that the interoperability of IT systems between authorities was an important development theme (57 % of representatives of the rescue and regulatory authorities) and this group also placed more emphasis than

the other respondent groups on increased utilization of municipal IT systems (42 % of representatives of the rescue and regulatory authorities). In addition, in their answers, these representatives emphasized more than the other groups the development of the expertise of the authorities via training (28 % of the representatives of rescue and regulatory authorities).

Figure 27 Improvements in the operations of authorities in relation to company preparedness, long-term

Unlike the other respondent groups, in terms of long-term development, the representatives of the rescue and regulatory authorities did not especially believe that the theme of ensuring that successful cooperation between authorities was not person-dependent was particularly important. Only 7 % of the representatives

of the rescue and regulatory authorities ranked this development work in the top three themes for improving the operations of the authorities.

These representatives also placed less emphasis than the other respondent groups on shifting the focus of the authorities’ work to a more advisory and preventive function and on ensuring the quality of the cooperation between authorities and companies so that it would be not be person-dependent, although these issues were ranked by the representatives of the rescue and regulatory authorities in the four top themes for development.

The answers of the company respondent group in terms of developing the operations of the authorities were largely in line with the average of all the answers. Unlike the other respondent groups however, the company representatives emphasized the regional significance of the company in the prioritizing of preparedness activities. All those experts who considered the regional significance of the company to be an important development theme belonged to the company group. Company representatives also emphasized more than the other groups the more active participation of the authorities in company rescue drills. On the other hand, companies considered the interoperability of the IT systems of the authorities and development of backup systems to be less important development issues.

In terms of the long-term development of authority operations, the stakeholders ranked two of the development themes much higher than the other respondent groups, i.e. the shifting of the authorities’ focus towards a more advisory and preventive function, and ensuring the quality of the cooperation between the authorities and companies so that successful cooperation is not person-dependent.

Almost 2/3 of the stakeholders’ group ranked the shifting of the authorities’ focus in the top three long-term development themes in terms of authority operations. Over half of the stakeholders’ experts also felt that ensuring the quality of cooperation between the authorities and companies was one of the three most important development themes regarding authority operations. In addition, the stakeholders placed more emphasis than the other groups on the development of backup systems. On the other hand, the stakeholders considered the readiness of the authorities to utilize municipal IT systems to be significantly less important than the other groups did, since less that 10% of the stakeholder experts ranked this in the top three themes for improvement of authority operations.