The International Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), under the auspices of the Working Group on Chemical Accidents has developed guidance for industry, public authorities, and communities to assist them in designing and implementing safety performance indicators programs The OECD Guidance on Safety Performance Indicators (“SPI Guidance”) was developed in close cooperation with OECD member countries as well as representatives of industry, other international organizations, and non-governmental organizations active in the area of chemical emergency prevention, preparedness, and response. The SPI Guidance is a companion to, and builds on the OECD Guiding Principles for Chemical Accident Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (2nd edition, 2003).

The guidance is contained in two documents, one for industry and the other for public authorities and communities. These documents were designed to serve as a tool to assist industrial enterprises, public authorities and communities in the vicinity of hazardous installations in establishing and implementing specific SPI programs tailored to their individual situations. Specifically, the guidance sets out a process for developing an SPI program and provides examples of key elements - targets, activities indicators and outcome indicators - for each of the three stakeholder groups.

SPI programs should help users to determine how successful they have been in developing and implementing appropriate requirements, policies and procedures designed to improve chemical accident prevention, preparedness and response, and to assess whether actions taken are achieving their desired results.

The OECD is also developing an on-line, interactive version of this Guidance.