Systems and equipment safety management addresses the risk of harm to people or the environment that is associated with a system or item of equipment.

Through managing the risk, the aim is to:

• comply with relevant specific safety law
• minimise, eliminating where possible, the risk of harm (the ALARP requirement)
• meet risk tolerability requirements, where appropriate
• verify the above are achieved
• document the achievement

Legal compliance, ALARP and tolerability have been requirements on both public and private sectors for many years. In recent years, the need to formalise safety management and document the argument through which a system or item is considered safe has increased. In a growing number of industries the provision of a safety case or a Health & Safety file is now a requirement of the regulatory authorities, or is the law.

In addition, the need for demonstrating that systems, equipment or products comply with applicable environmental related design requirements is also becoming more apparent. Suppliers of systems, equipment and products are increasingly being required to demonstrate compliance with customer, regulatory authority and legal requirements relating to design, environmental performance and end of life disposal.