The final In Plain Sight report, commissioned after the Grenfell Tower fire, calls on ICE and the wider industry to play a bigger part in empowering engineers to improve the safety of infrastructure. It makes recommendations which, when enacted, will help to mitigate the risk of infrastructure failure across the built environment.
The report was commissioned last year following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in London. Tim Broyd, then-ICE President, asked Professor Peter Hansford to chair a panel tasked with considering the state of current infrastructure and advise on whether any significant risks are ‘hiding in plain sight’.
The government also commissioned an independent review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety in the aftermath of Grenfell from Dame Judith Hackitt, who spoke at the report launch event.
An interim report was published last November. The final report challenges ICE, as a key industry institution, to lead on efforts to look at the industry's risk of infrastructure failure.
It makes 11 recommendations, aimed at ICE and the wider industry, across the areas of lesson-sharing, competence and governance.
Professor Peter Hansford, panel chair, said he was looking forward to seeing the whole construction sector take forward the recommendations.
“As professional engineers, we already know many of the factors that can contribute to the risk of infrastructure failure and we must remain diligent and critical to ensure they don’t stay hidden.
"This report is about empowering us to have a voice throughout the whole life of the infrastructure we design, construct and operate.”
The report will be presented to the ICE Council in December, where a decision to endorse the recommendations will be made.
Image: Professors Broyd & Hansford, Dame Judith Hackitt & Kyle Clough