Volume 15: Government and Public Administration
5. Risk analysis: an analytical approach to policy-making
The dissemination of ideas

5.20 Until the early 1990s, Departments pursued their own individual approaches to risk analysis. Then two separate policy developments prompted efforts to disseminate ideas and best practice across Whitehall. Firstly, the Deregulation Initiative (questioning the complexity of or need for regulations that impacted on business) prompted the establishment in April 1991 of an official group to produce guidance on risk assessment in that context, with a view to achieving greater consistency in decision-making. Secondly, 'a growing interest in the use of formal risk assessment techniques' in developing controls on (in particular) chemicals and genetically modified organisms resulted in a commitment to identify best practice and disseminate it across government. ¹ This led to the formation of the Inter-Departmental Liaison Group on Risk Assessment (ILGRA), of which the chair and secretariat were provided by the HSE. ILGRA first met in April 1992.

5.21 When revised in April 1993, ILGRA's terms of reference envisaged that it would report by September 1994. In the event, it reported in January 1996, giving an overview of risk assessment in government, describing the basic concepts and techniques, and outlining how various Departments used them. The Report recorded general agreement on issues such as how to handle uncertainty, the difficulty of quantifying risks, the unreliability of CBA and the need to use equity-based criteria as well, and the importance of taking account of public perceptions of risk. It identified a need for greater consistency in carrying out risk assessments and adopting new techniques, and for a common terminology. ²