Risk Management is a concept that is about practical steps to be taken to protect people from real harm and suffering. If you believe some of the stories you hear, health and safety is all about stopping any activity that might possibly lead to harm. This is not the vision of sensible health and safety - which is concerned with saving life, not stopping enjoyment. The sensible approach is to seek a balance between the unachievable aim of absolute safety and the kind of poor management of risk that damages lives and the economy.

This paper demonstrates that sensible risk management is about:

• Ensuring that workers and the public are properly protected
• Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks - both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences
• Enabling innovation and learning not stifling them
• Ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly and understand that failure to manage real risks responsibly is likely to lead to robust action
• Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility

The paper will also show that sensible Risk Management is not about:

• Creating a totally risk free society
• Generating useless paperwork mountains
• Scaring people by exaggerating or publicizing trivial risks
• Stopping important recreational and learning activities for individuals where the risks are managed
• Reducing protection of people from risks that cause real harm and suffering

The speaker will then hold a Workshop on Day one to confirm the concepts and to study them in a more practical environment.