About us

IChemE's Safety and Loss Prevention Special Interest Group provides a network for all of those interested in safety within the process industries. Process safety transcends disciplinary boundaries and concerns a wide range of professionals including chemical, mechanical, instrumentation and electrical engineers, scientists and accountants.

The special interest group is only one strand of IChemE's involvement in safety. Other strands include the IChemE Safety Centre and the Loss Prevention Bulletin. The special interest group's role is specifically to deliver an annual programme of activities of value to the IChemE membership in their professional practice. We also represent our members when consulted by other organisations, including other parts of IChemE.

Major Hazards Management is one of IChemE's Priority Topics, with IChemE's activity on this topic coordinated by the Major Hazards Committee.

The Safety and Loss Prevention Special Interest Group aims to:

• find-out what SIG members want and help them to cooperate in achieving it
• agree, with IChemE Board of Trustees and Learned Society Forum, priorities and expectations and contribute to meeting those expectations, including contribution to the Major Hazards Committee tasked with leading process safety strategy within IChemE.

Objectives

• facilitate networking and open dialogue on lessons to be learned
• encourage and support professional development, providing resources for training and the acquisition of new skills
• promote best practice, spreading this between industries, between institutions and between professions
• advance the technical and practical tools of safety and loss prevention
• build an understanding of risk issues, and influence the development and adoption of risk reduction measures.

Activities

• technical seminars, workshops and talks
• networking via events
• representation of professional interests
• preparation of responses to consultation documents
• identification of gaps in codes of practice, and contribution to codes of practice
• support of university teaching
• award of IChemE's Frank Lees Medal and Ned Franklin Medal, recognising excellence in process safety.

Target topics

Based on a survey of our group's membership in late 2019, re-visited and refocussed in 2024, the SIG's current topics of particular focus are:

• learning lessons from past case histories, which is linked to a wider project across IChemE led by the Major Hazards Committee
• safety and zero carbon, considering new and changed process safety threats associated with our response to climate change
• webinars, delivering an ongoing schedule for the benefit of our membership
• Flixborough at 50 years, a focus for 2024 commemorating the disaster and revisiting the lessons.

Joining instructions

Access to this group is a member exclusive benefit. To join the group and receive notifications of activities, log in and click the 'Join Group' button at the top of the page.

Contact us

Need some help? Contact us through our member group support team.

Selected committee members can be contacted using the details provided in the Committee section.