Summit highlights evolving process safety challenges

On 22 July 2025, the Process Safety Management Competence Programme (PSMCP) Board hosted its summit in York.

The summit brought together regulators, industry leaders, unions and professional engineering institutions (PEIs) to address the future of process safety in high hazard industries.

Formed in 2010 after the Buncefield and Texas City disasters, the PSMCB sets training standards, ensures consistent delivery, and publishes free-to-use process safety guidance for executives, managers, engineers, operators and contractors. Nearly 25,000 people have completed its courses in the past decade.

Cogent Skills administers the programme, with accredited experts tailoring training to specific organisational needs. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Process Industries Division (ProID) attended as a Board member, engaging with stakeholders and showcasing its role in advancing process safety knowledge.

Industry leaders share insights

Speakers addressed current and emerging risks, with recurring themes of competence, resilience, and adaptation.

• Richard Roff (Chair) emphasised managing risks linked to ownership changes, industry fragmentation, and the energy transition—particularly as corporate knowledge is lost through retirements. He urged fostering a culture built on three Process Safety Management questions: What can go wrong? What must go right? How will I know?
• Industry case studies from Encirc and Grain LNG mapped organisational safety journeys.
• Hydrogen competence was discussed by the Hydrogen Skills Alliance, which has created an open-source skills framework for the hydrogen value chain.
• The COMAH Strategic Forum outlined strategies to maintain capability in a changing industrial landscape.
• Skills and recruitment challenges were highlighted by Cogent Skills, with new Ofqual-regulated PSM awards announced.
• Safety leadership guidance was shared by the Tank Storage Association and Process Safety Forum.
• Climate change impacts were addressed by the Environment Agency, calling for an adaptation expert panel to develop standards to manage extreme weather risks to ALARP levels. 
  
  

Key takeaways

"We must strengthen process safety education for the next generation entering high hazard industries. As experienced staff leave through retirement and closures, the energy transition depends on retaining and developing competence to avoid future disasters.
Climate change will increasingly drive extreme weather events, and we must reassess safety bases for all hazardous process plants to withstand flooding, storms and temperature extremes—supported by robust standards and guidance.”

— Richard Hellebrand CEng FIMechE FEI, ProID and PSMCP Boards