Recommendation 10: Updating the Safety Case

A Safety Case should be updated:- (i) After a period of years from its last assessment (not less than 3, not more than 5, years). (ii) At the discretion of the regulatory body on the ground of a material change of circumstances, such as a change of operator, the occurrence of a major emergency (including one in which there is a precautionary evacuation), a major technological innovation or the discovery or better understanding of a major hazard. However, provision should be made in order to avoid the need for more than one Safety Case to be updated by an operator at the same time; and to enable the regulatory body to postpone the automatic updating where it has recently required a discretionary updating (para 17.46).