My guest today is Professor Andrew Sharman, President of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health.  Many of you listening will be IOSH members or might have done training which was delivered or accredited by IOSH.  Andrew is the CEO of international culture and leadership consultancy RMS, with qualifications in health and safety law, industrial psychology and organisational behavior.  Andrew is professor of leadership and safety culture at CEDEP, the European Centre for Executive Development, and a prolific author with titles including from Accidents to Zero, The Wellbeing Book, Naked Safety, and Mind Your Own Business: What Your MBA Should Have Taught You About Workplace Health and Safety which he co-authored with former Chair of the UK Health and Safety Executive Dame Judith Hackett. 

I literally just had a conversation with someone, who told me about a serious near-miss incident.  An incident so close to deadly for one person it gave me shivers.  Thankfully they weren't badly hurt.  The trouble was, after that happened, someone else died.  This is the story of the relationship between blame and learning. 

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents traces it's history back to a meeting in London, in 1916, the attendees of which resolved to create a Councilto tackle " the alarming increase in traffic accidents, and the direct connection therewith of the restricted street lighting which had been necessitated by the War conditions".

My guest today is Dr. Karen McDonnell, the Head of RoSPA Scotland and the organisations Occupational Health and Safety Policy Advisor.