A Guide to Risk Assessment in Ship Operations. IACS № 127

Although it is not often referred to as such, the development and implementation of a documented safety management system is an exercise in risk management. The drafting or amendment of written procedures involves looking at the company’s activities and operations, identifying what could go wrong, and deciding what should be done to try to prevent it. The documented procedures are the means by which the controls are applied.
There is no universally accepted definition of risk, but the one commonly applied and regarded as authoritative in most industrial contexts is:
“A combination of the probability, or frequency, of occurrence of a defined hazard and the magnitude of the consequences of the occurrence.”(ISO 8402:1995/BS 4778) IMO defines risk as:
“The combination of the frequency and the severity of the consequence.” (MSC Circ 1023/MEPC Circ 392)
In other words, risk has two components: likelihood of occurrence and severity of the consequences.
A hazard is a substance, situation or practice that has the potential to cause harm. Briefly, what we are concerned with, therefore, is:
- the identification of hazards
- the assessment of the risks associated with those hazards
- the application of controls to reduce the risks that are deemed intolerable
- the monitoring of the effectiveness of the controls
The controls may be applied either to reduce the likelihood of occurrence of an adverse event, or to reduce the severity of the consequences. The risks we are concerned with are those that are reasonably foreseeable, and relate to:
- the health and safety of all those who are directly or indirectly involved in the activity, or who may be otherwise affected
- the property of the company and others
- the environment

1. What the code says about risk assessment
2. The risk management process
3. Ensuring continuity and flexibility
4. People