Background
Creation of the DSEA represents implementation of one of the key recommendations of the Haddon-Cave report on the loss of Nimrod XV230 in Afghanistan in 2006, which was that, to avoid a conflict of interest, those responsible for the regulation of safety should be independent of those responsible for delivering output. As well as complying with Haddon-Cave, creation of the DSEA was endorsed by the Defence Reform report.
MOD has already implemented the principle of regulatory independence in aviation by setting up the Military Aviation Authority (MAA). The DSEA will sit alongside the MAA and regulate all other areas of Defence where we have exemptions from legislation. These exemptions exist because of the particular needs of Defence and cover areas such as nuclear, maritime, explosives and ordnance, and fuels and gases.
The Secretary of State's Policy Statement on Safety, Health and Environmental Protection requires that MOD complies with the law where we are subject to it, and that where we have exemptions we should produce internal regulations that produce outcomes that are, so far as reasonably practical, at least as good as those required by legislation; in addition to regulation, the DSEA will be responsible for over-arching safety and environmental protection policy and will carry out high level assurance to establish whether TLBs and TFAs are complying with the requirements of legislation, as well as internal regulation, in accordance with the Secretary of State’s Policy Statement.