Hardbound. Not only is technology going through its revolutions faster, but the institutions and organisations which exploit that technology are also in the process of almost constant reshaping. This accelerating change is a double-edged sword for safety. On the one hand it offers the opportunity for improvement, but on the other it threatens the tried and trusted measures which have produced high safety levels in the past.Trial and error as a learning method is not acceptable in high risk technologies. We must not only get things right first time, but adapt the management of safety to the...

Safety regulation is society's way of keeping the genie of technology in the bottle, whilst still exploiting its power for creating wealth and change. It is a difficult compromise to make. Regulators often have a thankless task. If all seems to go well they are painted as too repressive and anti-technological; if disaster strikes, the searchlight of media attention increasingly focuses on them, looking for lax enforcement, blind eyes being turned and cosy relations with the regulated. This title explores the dilemmas of the regulator through case studies presented by the regulators themselves...