The Bureau Recommends an investigation by the Herald (Scotland) into Shell’s poor safety record in the UK.
Research into data from the Heath and Safety Executive (HSE), a government body, revealed that Shell has censured for breaking rules on safety 25 times in six years.
The oil multi-national’s failures include failing to protect workers from hazardous chemicals, repeatedly failing to maintain pipelines and for not reporting a dangerous incident.
It has been prosecuted four times and been issued with 21 prohibition and improvement notices since 2005.
Shell is facing increased criticism and pressure to improve safety procedures, and for greater openness about incidents after last week’s oil leakage from a pipeline to the Gannet Alpha Platform, just 112 miles from Aberdeen.
A spokesperson from Shell told the Herald that its ‘prime focus’ was a commitment to ensuring the safety of staff and infrastructure. ‘We constantly inspect, monitor and review all our assets.’
‘Although we are confident that we have one of the most robust safety regimes in the world, we are not complacent,’ said an HSE spokesman. ‘The penalties imposed for breaches of offshore regulations are a matter for the courts’
‘Shell appears to have one of the poorest safety records of the major oil companies,’ said Stan Blackley, the chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland. ‘Fining Shell is not going to make it change its ways.’
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