Risk Manager — the New Professional

Fifteen years ago the problem for industrial safety in British industry was how to upgrade gum‐booted and untrained safety officers to the status of fully trained professionals. To this end the British Safety Council introduced a Diploma in Safety Management as the minimum qualification for the control of health and safety at work. The first task was to get companies to professionalise their safety management and, today, the best have done this, but many more have not. According to the British Safety Council in London, the first problem for companies intent on upgrading their safety managers is to ensure that they are trained in the basics of safety management and thereafter to encourage their graduation to risk management because, unlike the men from insurance backgrounds who have been traditionally responsible for risk management, those trained in safety are better qualified to assess and prevent risk rather than to transfer it to the insurers. For post‐diploma safety managers, the British Safety Council runs the only Risk Management Certification Course in Europe.