THE ROLE OF THE DANGEROUS GOODS SAFETY ADVISER AND IMPROVING COMPLIANCE WITH THE RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL ROAD TRANSPORT REGULATIONS AMONGST USERS IN THE GB INDUSTRIAL SECTOR

Over the last few years the Department for Transport (DfT) has been vigorously enforcing the radioactive material road transport regulations in Great Britain (GB) through its industrial and medical users inspection programme. These inspections have served to highlight significant compliance issues amongst organisations working in the industrial sector and it appears one requirement, more than any other, is unlikely to be met: the requirement to appoint a Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser (DGSA). In light of this and the other findings of the DfT’s inspections, the aims of this paper are twofold: • To clarify where the requirement for a DGSA comes from, what the role of the DGSA is and which organisations should appoint one. • To discuss possible reasons for the low number of DGSA appointments and other noncompliances commonly seen amongst organisations working in industry, before moving on to discuss how compliance, and in particular compliance with the requirement to appoint a DGSA, could perhaps be improved in the industrial sector. This paper concludes that a significant contribution towards improving compliance amongst organisations working in the industrial sector will be made through increasing the number of DGSA appointments. How this could be achieved and how the perceived value of the role of the DGSA could be improved are discussed.