Risk Perception Leading to Risk Taking Behaviour Amongst Farmers in England and Wales
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HSE Health & Safety Executive Risk perception leading to risk taking behaviour amongst farmers in England and Wales Prepared by ADAS Consulting Ltd for the Health and Safety Executive CONTRACT RESEARCH REPORT 404/2002 HSE Health & Safety Executive Risk perception leading to risk taking behaviour amongst farmers in England and Wales Dr David J Knowles BA(Hons), PhD, Dip,O.H.S ADAS Consulting Ltd Woodthorne Wergs Road Wolverhampton West Midlands WV6 8TQ United Kingdom This report details research carried out looking at the perception of risk amongst farmers in England and Wales and whether risk taking behaviour is linked. The overall aim was to gather information on possible future initiatives to assist the Health and Safety Executive in its future strategy for preventing farm accidents This report and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive. Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the author(s) alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy. HSE BOOKS © Crown copyright 2002 Applications for reproduction should be made in writing to: Copyright Unit, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ First published 2002 ISBN 0 7176 2251 7 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. ii CONTENTS Pages 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 2.0 BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH 2-3 3.0 METHODOLOGY 4-6 4.0 SURVEY RATIONALE 7-9 5.0 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS – STRUCTURAL 10-18 6.0 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS – HUMAN: ORGANISATIONAL 19-27 7.0 DISCUSSIONS OF RESULTS – BEHAVIOURAL 28-53 8.0 CONCLUSIONS 54-63 Appendix 1a: Questionnaire Sent to Farms 64-68 Appendix 2: Responses to Open Questions 16 & 17 69-87 Appendix 3: References 88 Appendix 4: Question 14 Charts 90-103 Appendix 5: Question 12 and Cross Tabulations 104-149 iii TABLES SECTION 5 Table 1 Land owned and/or farmed Table 2 Tenure, England and Wales 1996 Table 3 Total farm size breakdown and number of survey holdings Table 4 Percentage distribution of holdings in England and Wales (1997) and this Survey (2000) Table 5 Holdings by area England and Wales (1997) and this Survey (2000) Table 6 Comparison of larger farms (100+ ha) between England and Wales and Survey Table 7 Average size of enterprise by structure 1997, compared with survey 2000 results Table 8 Cropping areas in Survey 2000 Table 9 Stocking Table 10 Livestock numbers 1992-1999 Table 11 Employment structure on survey farms in England and Wales Table 12 The use of contractors SECTION 6 Table 1 Role on the farm Table 2 Age of respondents Table 3 Age structure of survey 2000 with fatal accidents Table 4 Age of children Table 5 Fatal injuries to employees, self-employed and children in agriculture 1986/87 to 1997/98 Table 6 Number of years farming Table 7 Educational attainment Table 8 Current attitude to farming by farm type Table 9 Agricultural workforce 1992 to 1999 Table 10 General health Table 11 Health problems SECTION 7 Table 1 Significant hazards recorded by respondents Table 2 Evaluations of Responses to Q12 Table 3 Typical killers in agriculture in the UK Table 4 Hazards, perception of risk and fatal accidents Table 5 Over-estimates of risk Table 6 Under-estimates of risk Table 7 Theoretical risk taking behaviours on farms in England and Wales Table 8 Cross Analysis of Q12 Hazards with Q14 Risk Taking Behaviours Table 9 Comparison of Responses: those selecting hazards A/those not B Table 10 Risk management Table 11 Proposed actions Table 12 Risk management items iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report details research carried out (a) to look at the perception of risk held by a large sample of farmers in England and Wales; (b) to look at risk taking behaviour admitted by the farmers, and (c) to draw conclusions on future possible initiatives which may be considered by HSE in the future to reduce farm accidents. The report looks at previous work carried out in this field in the UK and in North America. It concludes that reliance on accident data for formulating future strategy is problematical and it recommended that a behavioural approach is adopted, in line with human factors approaches adopted elsewhere towards successful health and safety management. The methodology adopted to gather the bulk of information was the formulation and administration of a postal questionnaire to a large sample of farms in England and Wales. This report discusses in detail the methodology and survey rationale. Results from the survey are discussed in three sections: Structural, Human: Organisation and Behavioural. The interrelationships between the three are highlighted within the report. All the results showed that the survey was representative of agriculture in England and Wales and that the methodology adopted was a successful way of gathering relevant information. In the conclusions to this report possible future initiatives/interventions are discussed in the light of the structural, organisational and behavioural information gathered in this work. Recommendations are made bearing in mind the likely success of initiatives. An essential point made is that the split between advisory and enforcement roles of HSE should be critically examined. The study concludes with a call for further answers to questions (i) as to why farmers act and behave unsafely even though they know that it is wrong, (ii) how their attitudes and perceptions can be misplaced so as to leave them exposed to elevated risk and (iii) how attitudes can potentially be modified and behaviour changes as the result of interventions in order to reduce the human tragedy and economic burden caused by farm accidents. v vi 1 INTRODUCTION The original title in the detailed proposal for this study was: “A Study Of Risk Perception Leading To Risk Taking Behaviour Amongst Farmers In Great Britain And How Future Regulations May Amplify/Alter Such Perceptions” A proposal was made to carry out the study in response to the HSE document “Main Stream Research Market 1998/99, where at Page 22, under the heading “Behavioural and Social Sciences”, and “Organisational structures and management methods” the areas of interest stated are firstly: S the influence of risk perception on risk taking behaviour in the workplace and secondly: S the identification of those factors most likely to lead to amplification or alteration of perceptions of risks to health and safety and how regulations can take account of them, particularly in ways they communicate about risk. The possible scope and content of the study was discussed with HSE. The proposal document reflected the discussions and made detailed proposals. Within the proposal there was the opportunity to further develop the research as time progressed to ensure that all the needs of HSE were met. The proposal included update meetings for agreements to be made during the life of the study. The scope of the study was subsequently changed to look at a wider range of initiatives than those originally envisaged in the original detailed proposal, made in response to the Main Stream Research document detailed above. The study has thus expanded its aims and was conducted to look at other initiatives as well as future Regulations. The thought was that restricting the research to how Regulations may amplify/alter perceptions of risk was too narrow and a host of measures could be canvassed in the study. This report details the background to the research, the research methodology, the survey rationale, discussion of results and finally draws conclusions from the results and from the chosen methodology for its efficacy in helping to shape future strategy. 1 2 BACKGROUND 2.1 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM Much has been written on risk and risk assessment since the Royal Society produced its book on the subject in 1982, much of which has proved to be of limited use for policy makers, employers and employees alike. The Royal Society said in one of its main conclusions that there “was a need for better estimates of actual risk based on direct observation of what happens in society.” (p.18). Whilst a behavioural approach has been called for few studies have been undertaken at this scale of analysis. John Adams of University College London published a major work titled “Risk” in 1995. The work of Adams seems to lead the way forward. He says “The future is uncertain and inescapably subjective; it does not exist except in the minds of people attempting to anticipate it.”(p.30). There is therefore the need to attempt to understand what is in the minds of people who will expose themselves to risk in their working life. Adams goes on to say “Our anticipation’s are formed by projecting past experience into the future. Our behaviour is guided by our anticipation’s. If we anticipate harm, we take avoiding action.”(p.30). The problem is that harm is not always accurately anticipated and we do not know enough about how this process works. 2.2 PREVIOUS WORK A literature search of OSH-UK CD ROM System and other databases on “risk perception” and “risk taking behaviour” provided some references but none of direct relevance to the agricultural context. The major literature review was undertaken by HSE in 1998 (Human Factors Group). There is little work being undertaken in the UK at the farm scale though others have recently published research findings from their study of farmers in the USA (Green, 1999; Hodne et al, 1999; Rhodes et al, 2000).