Recommendation 17: Goal-setting regulations and guidance notes
From The Public Inquiry into the Piper Alpha Disaster, published 12 November 1990.
Recommendation
(i) The principal regulations in regard to offshore safety should take the form of requiring that stated objectives are to be met (referred to as “goal-setting regulations”) rather than prescribing that detailed measures are to be taken (para 21.67). (ii) In relation to goal-setting regulations, guidance notes should give non-mandatory advice on one or more methods of achieving such objectives without prescribing any particular method as a minimum or as the measure to be taken in default of an acceptable alternative (para 21.67). (iii) However, there will be a continuing need for some regulations which prescribe detailed measures (para 21.67).
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from the addressee has been found in the sources searched (last checked 27 February 2026). This is separate from the response above.