2018-S20 Development of risk assessment

Justification of the recommendation

The Defence Forces have developed their risk assessment with regard to exercises, but this work is still in progress. The current risk assessment form does not encourage naming identi-fied risks, but these are evaluated by predetermined risk type (e.g. land or sea traffic acci-dents). If the risks involved in exercises are not identified and named, it is difficult to control and warn troops on exercise.

Recommendation

The Defence Forces develop the risk assessment of exercises in order to identify the actual risks and name those which are identified. [2018-S20]

Specification of recommendation

For example, local risks associated with transport should be identified.

Reiterated in investigation: ---

Actions / explanations

The Finnish Defence Forces deployed a new risk management and occupational and in-service safety incident reporting system (PVRIPO) on 1 July 2022.
A revision of operational system requirements is documented in the Defence Forces’ 2023 Action Plan. The requirements for occupational and in-service safety risk management emphasise the need to review at least the most significant occupational and in-service safety risks involved in work that falls under the Occupational Safety and Health Act annually and to identify the most significant risks involved in military exercises on a case-by-case basis. The system’s risk management tools can also be used to plan and organise individual events such as military oath and affirmation ceremonies. Training courses that deal with occupational and in-service safety risk management emphasise the importance of carrying out risk assessment task-specifically and at the right time to ensure that all the relevant risks are factored in and that the chosen risk management measures are effective and capable of promoting safety in a proactive manner. Occupational and in-service safety incidents can be reported by officers, recruits as well as reservists, for example. Awareness about the occupational and in-service safety incident reporting system is growing steadily. There are also plans for a system update that will enable the reporting of positive safety observations and good safety practices. Occupational and in-service safety incident reporting is a prerequisite for proactive risk management that focuses on controlling at least the most significant known risks.