DOC 252/24 – Safety Critical Devices

The concept of safety critical elements was introduced in the UK oil and gas sector by the legislation enacted following the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988. After this, the concept has been extended to the rest of process industries, including industrial gases.

A common practice to all process industries is that they manage the safety of their operations using Risk Based Process Safety Management Systems.

The main objective of Risk Based Process Safety Management Systems is preventing the occurrence of Process Safety Incidents (PSI).

Safety critical devices (SCD) are defined specifically as instruments and equipment which mitigate against a safety risk, i.e. not a business or environmental risk. The safety risk should be credible in terms of probable likelihood and potential consequence.

The purpose of this publication is to provide industry guidance for the identification and management of SCD within the industrial and medical gases industry.