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The Guidance on SPI has been prepared by an Expert Group under the auspices of the Working Group on Chemical Accidents that manages the OECD Programme on Chemical Accidents.  The development of the SPI Guidance has been undertaken in close co-operation with other international organisations active in the area of chemical accident prevention, preparedness and response.

The SPI Guidance is a companion to, and builds on the OECD Guiding Principles for Chemical Accident Prevention, Preparedness and Response (second edition, 2003).  In addition it is intended to be consistent with, and complementary to, related international initiatives in the public and private sectors.

This document was designed to serve as a tool to assist industrial enterprises, public authorities and communities in the vicinity of hazardous installations to establish and implement SPI programmes.  This should help the three stakeholder groups to determine how successful they have been in developing and implementing appropriate requirements, policies and procedures designed to improve chemical accident prevention, preparedness and response, and to assess whether actions taken to implement these requirements truly lead to continuously improving levels of safety overtime.

The guidance does not define a precise methodology, but rather provides guidance on how to develop and use safety performance indicators.  It is not prescriptive; rather it provides suggestions related to the elements that might be included in a voluntary SPI Programme and provides general guidance on the process of establishing and implementing such a programme.  Specifically, it gives the three stakeholder groups tools with which they can design their own SPI programmes by identifying key elements: targets, activities indicators and outcome indicators.

For purposes of this document, the term “indicators” is used to mean observable measures that provide insights into a concept – safety – that is difficult to measure directly.  Activities indicators are designed to help identify whether enterprises/organisations are taking actions believed to lower risks (e.g. the types of actions described in the OECD Guiding Principles).  Outcome indicators are designed to help measure whether such actions are, in fact, leading to less likelihood of an accident occurring and/or less adverse impact on human health or the environment from an accident.

This guidance should be used on a voluntary basis, only to the extent appropriate, and only when adapted to particular circumstances.  It is important to keep in mind that not all elements of the guidance will be appropriate in each situation.  It is up to each reader to create a programme that is appropriate for their particular organisation by: (i) selecting those elements that are relevant in their circumstances; (ii) adapting the elements to be consistent with their organisations’ vocabulary, policies and procedures; and (iii) developing metrics for measuring trends over time.

SPI Guidance Documents (2008)

PDF

PDF

Translations of SPI Guidance Documents

Document d’orientation sur les indicateurs de performance en matière de sécurité destiné aux pouvoirs publics et aux collectivités/au public
Document d’orientation sur les indicateurs de performance en matière de sécurité destiné à l’industrie

Web Based SPI Guidance (2009)

A navigable version of the SPI Guidance has been developed based on the 2008 SPI Guidance Document.  It contains a research tool which allows the user to navigate around the document searching by topic, stakeholder or through the table of contents.  It also contains an additional resource called "Create a Customised SPI Programme".  This is a tool to assist users in adapting the general guidance to their own situation.  Through a series of questions, this tool lead readers to relevant sections of the guidance, allowing them to select indicators applicable to their programme.  The final result is a Word document containing the selected indicators and related material.  The web-based SPI Guidance also includes a function to send feedback to the OECD Secretariat, either via e-mail (ehscont@oecd.org).  It is available at:
http://www.oecdsafetyindicators.org/

Note: The Web SPI Guidance will be further updated based on the 2008 SPI Documents.

Contact Us

To receive a printed copy of the 2008 Guidance on SPI, please contact ehscont@oecd.org.

Translations of the 2003 SPI Guidance:

Related Documents

Document d'orientation sur les indicateurs de performance en matière de sécurité

Korean Translation of the Guidance on Safety Performance Indicators

Chinese translation of the Guidance on Safety Performance Indicators