We are in the process of arranging some German contractors to visit our UK site and carry out some process engineering works (the contractor selection is unfortunately out of my hands and I'm told we can't find anyone with enough domain knowledge in the UK). These contractors are a relatively large company within their field of operation and carry out work throughout europe. We have entered into the usual contractor process and requested method statements and preliminary RA's etc. from them as part of the planning phase of our project. The German firm however appeared to be totally confused when we asked for this and had no clue what we were on about. Clearly, this stumped me! So, my question is - does anyone have experience of dealing with German companies and can tell me: a) do they have a similar system / legislation for risk assessments and method statements in Germany b) if they do have a system, are they called something completely different? c) if they don't have a system, how do you overcome it to ensure they can demonstrate proper planning and will work safely when in the UK? And lastly, are there any other cultural differences I might need to be aware of here? I'm happy to coach them through it to some degree, but I'm obviously a bit wary when they appear to be oblivious to the whole concept of RA's and written pre-job planning..... I'm confused :-( Stu

Try this link on the HSE website. They pre job planning there, they just dont call it a Risk Assessment http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr535.pdf

Note this remark from Lofstedt- Part of the problem could be due to the fact that there is confusion between the terms risk and hazard. The whole language around risk assessment is grounded in English, which has a clear linguistic distinction between risk and hazard. That distinction is not the same in other European countries. For example, in the Swedish language there is no expression for hazard. The closest word is ‘fara’ which means danger165. In a detailed study by Peter Wiedemann and his colleagues for the German Federal Risk Assessment Bureau, more than 80 per cent of German respondents confused the term166. Don't expect non UK contractors to follow our RAMS approach!

Have a look at this link Stu. Afraid it's a bit environmentally biased and fairly heavy going (as it's the German Env.Agency :) ) but it may give you a bit of guidance. http://www.umweltbundesa...erheitsorganisation.html William