Health and safety

Target 2006/07: Consolidate effective management leadership at Stansted by conducting thorough reviews of performance and compliance. This will be done via governance meetings that complement the emerging management structure at the airport. An underlying foundation of the governance of health and safety will be effective documentation and communication of relevant processes and policies.
Performance against target: Target achieved

The issue

Passengers, staff and visitors face a diverse range of potential hazards – from minor accidents to more serious incidents.

We have a duty of care to keep everyone as safe as possible. Striking the right balance between informed and motivated leaders who are willing to challenge
existing practices, and operating within appropriate control processes, is the best and most effective way to deliver the highest standards of health and safety.

Our approach

Our approach is to ensure that there is one clearly understood process in place for managing all significant risks to passengers, staff and third parties at Stansted.

We put great emphasis on process-led delivery, with line managers taking greater responsibility through devolved ownership of health and safety issues. This is essential if we are to meet the challenges of a changing regulatory environment.

The next steps in health and safety management arrangements at Stansted are:

• Clear alignment of health and safety processes;
• Formalisation of local health and safety assurance;
• Improved communication of health and safety expectations and accountabilities to workforce and management; and
• Reductions in work-related absenteeism through learning from incidents, staff support and rehabilitation.

Our performance

In the last year new management and governance procedures have been introduced and are now embedded across the airport. We now have a risk governance structure that features local ‘managing responsibly’ groups, covering terminal operations, logistics and airside operations, firmly established with clear terms of reference. These groups report directly into the Core Leadership Team chaired by the airport managing director, through a Risk Governance Board, chaired by an airport director.

During 2006/07 some of our key achievements were:

• The introduction of health and safety inspection tours for senior managers, with each individual tasked to complete a certain number each year as part of their formal performance targets. In total, the senior management team carried out 72 health and safety tours across the airport to understand local concerns and resolve outstanding issues. This has helped build confidence in the management team and yielded an excellent insight into staff concerns;
• A downward trend in passenger and staff injuries, which is a key performance indicator relating to health and safety;
• Stansted has also maintained its position in the BAA group as the best performing London airport in relation to false fire alarms and fire incidents; and
• A comprehensive Health and Safety report is presented to the monthly meeting of the airport Core Leadership Team, with regular reviews of the Stansted Risk Register.

Our plans

Our challenge in 2007 is to drive compliance standards through all levels of management by communicating our expectations in a clear and concise way.

To do this we recognise the importance of maintaining regular two-way communication with staff and ensuring follow-up procedures are in place when introducing new management processes.

To help achieve this we will appoint staff to undertake key delivery roles and offer mentoring/feedback on local implementation of company policy. We are resolved to improve the timely investigation and follow-up of minor accidents and injuries. To improve our understanding of the causes of these accidents, and consequently aim to reduce time lost to injuries, local managers will be required to follow-up on a broader range of incidents in the rest of 2007.

To be successful we must continue to work in partnership with employee representatives, and during the rest of the year we will be working with our trade unions to secure more effective involvement by employees in the decisions that affect their own safety.

Target 2007:
Map, review and update health,safety and environmental procedures for all key risks.

Data summary