Hazardex – the only global, dedicated media for those concerned with protecting personnel, process & plant in all high hazard settings.

Hazardex Live 2025 took place at the Hilton Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, UK on 26-27 February 2025.

Details for Hazardex Live 2026 will be announced in due course.

The Event, Conference, & Awards - sponsored by TÜV Rheinland, C&P Engineering, Metrohm and CEF - included a varied and quality conference programme focused on hazardous area operations and process safety, bringing operators, legislators, consultants service providers & vendors together to review legislation, best practices, and stay up-to-date with the latest research.

Sponsored by:

Scroll down to find full Presentation Abstracts & Author Biographies!

Day 1



Day 2






Conference Stream 1 speaker line-up
(click presentation titles for full abstracts & author biographies)


CompEx – Huw Bement, Managing Director - The key steps to understanding competency in hazardous areas

C&P Engineering Services – Dewi Evans, Hazardous Area Operations Manager - Hazardous Area Inspections: Trials and Tribulations – Part 2: Legacy Equipment

Sasol – Michelle Du Preez, Explosion Prevention Practitioner - Through the pendulum of area classification

Fuels Industry UK – Simon Wood, Environment, Health, and Safety Specialist - Planning for success - the importance of a flexible, risk-based, efficient planning system for Net Zero 2050

Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) – Michelle Smith, Nuclear Site Health & Safety Inspector (NSHS) - Regulatory expectations for DSEAR compliance in the nuclear sector

Ithaca Energy – Dr. Ed Bailey, Process Safety/Technical Safety Team Lead - Automating cumulative risk in barrier models

IECEx / PTB – Dr. Martin Thedens, Chair of IEC TC31 & Head of PTB Department 3.6 - Ex Equipment and Ex Components – requirements for marking and nameplates

Tank Storage Association (TSA) – Peter Davidson, Executive Director - Buncefield 20: Learning the lessons from the Buncefield explosions and fires in 2005

Chemical Business Association (CBA) – Elaine McGavin, Regulatory Lead - UK REACH developments

Institute of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) – Karen Warhurst, Senior Principal Consultant, DNV - Update on the IGEM/TD/2 standard

National Gas – Abd Elrahman Afifi - New technologies for gas detection

Grupa Wolff – Dr. Andrzej Wolff, Process Security Expert - An innovative approach to risk assessment for combustible dusts

Fike UK – Jim Vingerhoets, Explosion Safety Consultant - Flameless explosion venting for combustible dust

Roxtec – Gavin Cornall, Global Segment Manager - How to protect against concurrent and consequential hazards – service sealing in the nuclear industry 

Chemical Business Association (CBA) – Heather Carroll, People & Skills Hub Lead, & Edward Platt, Responsible Care Programme Lead - Employing the responsible care initiative to build sustainable future generations of talent

Vital-Ex – Tal Hopkins, Director - Area Classification Standards – which one should we use?

DNV – James Steven, Senior Principal Engineer - Hazards and understanding in the energy transition

Dron & Dickson – Bob Banks, Hazardous Area Technical Authority - Using robust inspection history to develop a risk-based approach to ongoing inspections 


Conference Stream 2 - Sponsored by TÜV Rheinland

Safety culture: the power of habits – George Bradley, Global Manager for Safety Culture - TÜV Rheinland

Risk based inspection and repurposing pressure equipment for hydrogen duty – Andy Fisher, Senior Inspection Engineer - TÜV Rheinland

Qualitative approaches are still relevant for risk assessment in a digital world – Conal Brown, Senior Consultant - TÜV Rheinland

Ransomware resilience in high-hazard industries – David Allen, Cyber Security Consultant - TÜV Rheinland

Management of Change: reflecting upon incidents, audits and gap analyses – Graeme Laughland, Principal Process Safety Consultant - TÜV Rheinland

IEC61511 and independence of BPCS layers in SIL Assessment – Stephen Beedle, Principal Process Safety Consultant - TÜV Rheinland

An insight into where Process Safety encounters Machine Safety – Suresh Sugavanam, Principal Consultant - TÜV Rheinland

Final element proof testing – What can go wrong? – Colin Bartliff, Senior Consultant & Suresh Sugavanam, Principal Consultant - TÜV Rheinland

Making sense of EC&I ageing and obsolescence – William Hair, Principal INTM Consultant - TÜV Rheinland

Is good, good enough for Process Safety? – Gary Lumbard, Senior Process Safety Consultant - TÜV Rheinland

DSEAR and HAC for hydrogen road vehicles – David Rees, Principal Engineer - TÜV Rheinland Risktec Solutions

ECFIO – Jon Wallis, EC&I Compliance Lead & Graham Doggett, Hazardous Area Consultant - Managing ageing assets and the role of DSEAR compliance in process safety  

Blackline Safety – Michelle Smith, Regional Sales Manager - Protecting lone workers from stress, isolation, and violence

Media and Crisis Management Ltd. – Bruce Holcombe, Commercial Director - Key considerations for emergency response for COMAH-regulated sites

BakerRisk – Roger Stokes, Principal Engineer - Guidelines for preparing equipment for maintenance and return to service

Expo Technologies – Martha Carrillo, Certification & Consultancy Manager - Routes to hazardous area certification – a collaborative approach to challenging Ex protection projects

Drager – Ian Kelsall, Respiratory Protection Equipment (RPE) BDM - Your RPE may be appropriate but is it suitable?

For further details about our events please contact us via hazardex@imlgroup.co.uk or call +44 (0) 1732 778544.

NOTE: Please ignore any approaches/emails from data brokers claiming to have attendee lists for these events as they are not authorised. Hazardex does not release this data to any such companies, only to exhibitors and following GDPR. Therefore the only way to access this data is via the Hazardex team.