IChemE succeeds in lobbying HSE to make Piper Alpha report free

Will help engineering students and existing workforce alike

ICHEME has successfully lobbied the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to waive the £70 (US$91) cost of the landmark Cullen report into the Piper Alpha disaster, which is now being made free to download.

Shahana Buchanan, chair of the IChemE Safety & Loss Prevention Special Interest Group, and Trish Kerin, director of the IChemE Safety Centre, sent a letter to the HSE in early July on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Piper Alpha, calling for the report to be made free to access.

They wrote “the Institution of Chemical Engineers believes it is vital to reflect on this event and what we can learn to prevent future catastrophes of this nature… The inability to download the document free of charge may prevent some people accessing it, especially university students. We believe these lessons should be free to all industries.”