Q. You’ve mentioned the Safety Culture Conference, can you expand on the genesis of the conference, and why it matters now more than ever?

The conference was created to provide a dedicated forum for sharing good practice and advanced thinking on safety culture. We wanted a space where people could learn from both inside and outside the shipping sector, challenge established behaviours and adopt new approaches to managing safety.

What has been particularly encouraging is the growing level of engagement. Attendance has increased year on year, which tells us there is a real appetite across the industry to have more meaningful, practical discussions about safety culture. It’s great to have this platform for that exchange — and one that continues to evolve as the challenges facing the industry become more complex.

Q. Has the industry made real progress on safety culture, or are we still too focused on regulation and compliance?

There has been progress, but it is often uneven. The default response to accidents still focuses heavily on strengthening regulation and increasing training for seafarers. The role of leaders and safety managers is not given sufficient attention. Lasting cultural change depends on their behaviour, decision‑making and willingness to address the barriers that prevent effective safety cultures from developing. If attitudes at leadership level do not change, improvement will always be limited.

Q: Why is compliance still treated as the endpoint for safety, rather than the starting point for improvement?

Compliance tends to dominate not because companies believe it is the best way to improve safety, but because they are required to demonstrate it — to flag states, port states, charterers and surveyors.

A meaningful shift will only happen if audits and inspections are seen as opportunities for learning rather than simply assessments of compliance. When organisations treat these processes as a chance to understand where they can improve, rather than what they must prove, it opens the door to more proactive safety cultures.

Q: Finally, as you look ahead, what can you see on your Horizon Scan for the future of safety culture in shipping?

What stands out most on my horizon is not a single technology or regulation, but the pace of change. Alternative fuels, greater connectivity, remote monitoring and decision‑support tools will all reshape not only how ships operate, but also risk, particularly in non‑routine situations.

These are exactly the conversations we are bringing into the Safety Culture Conference in Glasgow. As the industry navigates its way through these turbulent times, the conference provides a vital forum to explore how safety culture can evolve — and how people, not just systems, remain at the heart of safe operations.

Tickets are now available for the Safety Culture Conference, find out more and book here: ukchamberofshipping.com/scc2026