Safety
Critical Risk Control Management

Critical Risk Control Management

Focus on the Critical Few – Ensuring Effective Critical Controls for Operational Excellence

what

Critical Control Effectiveness

We help organisations target the right critical controls to provide assurance they are not only in place, but also effective. This approach is internationally recognised to prevent and mitigate fatalities and catastrophic events.

why

Why Focus on Critical Risk Controls?

Many organisations struggle to truly understand how effective critical controls operate. This assurance is often suboptimal without a conscious choice to understand and verify critical controls at all levels of the organisation and across the lifecycle of operations.

how

How We Strengthen Critical Risk Controls

Critical controls prevent fatalities, not paperwork. We offer a range of solutions to improve critical controls of actual work:

Identification: Identifying high-energy sources, Material Unwanted Events (MUE), critical controls and their touch points.
Standards & Capability: Setting standards, performance criteria and building the right capability at all levels of your organisation.
Verification & Evaluation: Methods to check critical control effectiveness and evaluate organisational performance.
Review, Learning & Improve: Working with leaders and frontline workers to support reflecting learning, to review and create sustainable improvements.

Our Critical Control Management Performance Assessment enables organisations to benchmark current performance to track improvements overtime.

FAQs

1. What is Critical Risk Control Management?

Critical Risk Control Management (CRCM) is a structured approach to identifying, implementing, and verifying the controls that prevent high-consequence events (e.g. fatalities, serious injuries, or catastrophic incidents).

It focuses specifically on critical controls – those that must work every time to prevent or mitigate major risks.

2. How do you identify critical controls?

Critical controls are identified through risk assessments that focus on:

High-consequence hazards (e.g. working at heights, mobile plant, confined spaces)
Potential fatal or life-altering events
Controls that directly prevent the event or reduce its severity

Frameworks such as bowtie analysis are often used to map hazards, threats, and controls, helping determine which controls are truly “critical.”

3. What makes a control “critical”?

A control is considered critical if:

Its failure could directly lead to a serious incident
There are no adequate backup controls
It plays a key role in preventing or mitigating a fatal risk

Not all controls are critical – CRCM prioritises those that have the greatest impact on preventing major harm.

4. How do you verify that critical controls are working?

Verification is a core part of CRCM and typically includes:

Regular inspections and audits
Field observations and assurance activities
Defined performance standards for each control
Clear accountability for control owners

Effective verification ensures controls are not just in place – but are functioning as intended in real conditions.

5. How is Critical Risk Control Management different from traditional risk management?

Traditional risk management often treats all risks similarly.
CRCM takes a more focused approach by:

Prioritising fatal and catastrophic risks
Identifying the few controls that matter most
Emphasising ongoing verification and assurance rather than one-off assessments

This aligns with global best practices, including guidance from ICMM on critical control management for preventing fatal incidents.