Best Practice for Risk Based Inspection

HSE
Health & Safety
Executive
Best practice for risk based inspection
as a part of plant integrity
management
Mr J B Wintle and Mr B W Kenzie
TWI
Granta Park
Great Abington
Cambridge
CB1 6AL
Mr G J Amphlett and Mr S Smalley
Royal and SunAlliance Engineering
17 York Street
Manchester
M2 3RS
This report discusses the best practice for the application of Risk Based Inspection (RBI) as part of
plant integrity management, and its inspection strategy for the inspection of pressure equipment and
systems that are subject to the requirements for in-service examination under the Pressure Systems
Safety Regulations 2000 (PSSR). It can also apply to equipment and systems containing hazardous
materials that are inspected as a means to comply with the Control of Major Accident Hazards
Regulations (COMAH).
One of the main themes of the report is the amount of information that is known about an item of
equipment and conversely the identification of where there is a lack of information, which may make
the RBI invalid. The report considers the application, data requirements, team competences, inspection
plan (including NDT techniques and reliability) and overall management of the RBI process.
An audit tool is given in the Appendices order to assist the evaluation the RBI process. This contains a
flow diagram followed by a series of questions and a commentary relating to each stage. The
commentary summarises the best practice discussed in the main text.
This report and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Its
contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do
not necessarily reflect HSE policy.
HSE BOOKS