Development of a Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA) framework for the Environment Agency
Objective:
To develop a risk assessment framework that aids the Environment Agency in making decisions about the highly varied risks it manages in day-to-day operations and long-term strategies. These risks include operational health and safety risk and risks covered by the Environment Agency remit such as environmental and flood risk. The framework was required to build on theoretical studies produced previously.
Added value to client:
RM Consultants Ltd (RMC) has many years’ experience developing and applying risk assessment frameworks to environmental issues. RMC developed a useable decision-making framework that does not require specialist knowledge or training. Rather, it is designed to help users organise their thinking and judgments about their own domain and provide a structure for systematic debate with those with different experience and views. The framework thus helps with decisions about complex, and often conflicting, risks and allows for greater accountability, consistency and transparency in decision-making.
Activities:
- Identifying, in consultation with the Environment Agency, user requirements and practical and technical constraints
- Developing a draft framework that compares and prioritises risks of different types effectively. These include, for example, risks to the Environment Agency’s statutory responsibilities for air, water and soil pollution and flood defence, as well as wider elements of the Corporate Vision, such as promoting sustainability and minimising and adapting to climate change.
- Ensuring the framework is applicable to all areas of Environment Agency activity (policy, strategy, operational decisions etc)
- Providing guidance on applying the framework to different decision-making contexts, framing questions for assessment, defining risks, data collection and interpretation of the outputs.
- Testing, refining and demonstrating the framework by applying it to realistic case studies, including decisions about flood risk management options and the relative priorities given to regulation of different industrial processes.
