Development and initial testing of a regulatory body safety culture perception survey

Abstract

Regulator safety culture is a relatively new area of investigation, even though deficiencies in regulatory oversight have been identified in a number of public inquiries (e.g., Piper Alpha, Deep Water Horizon). More recently, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report into the Fukushima disaster specifically identified the need for regulatory bodies to have a positive safety culture. While there are clear parallels between duty holder safety culture and regulator safety culture there are also likely to be differences. The present study adopted a two-phase approach that (1) used literature review and interviews with 13 safety culture experts to develop a framework on regulator safety culture and (2) used leanings from Study 1 in combination with items developed by a safety culture working group to develop and evaluate a regulator safety culture survey. The importance of regulator safety culture incites the need to develop valid and reliable tools to assess this construct.