AHTEG on Risk Assessment and Risk Management: 2014-2016 Intersessional Period

Dear AHTEG members,

I would like to thank you very much for a good discussion last week on an important topic. As promised I would like to briefly summarize our debate as follows:

There was general agreement that it is appropriate to place the background/reference materials at the end of each section (i.e. after all the Elements for Consideration under each section) and the boxes.

Moreover, there were also a few suggestions to assign numbers to each reference material so that, where appropriate, materials that are relevant to specific Elements for Consideration can be indicated in the text and the actual reference provided at the end of the section along with the other references.

It was also noted that the submitters should be able to indicate to which sections or Elements for Consideration the reference material being submitted is relevant. Please note that this is already the case with the current submission tool through the BCH, and it will continue to be so.

Although not directly the focus of the discussion, some interventions also noted the importance of ensuring that reference materials linked to the Guidance are of high quality.

Finally, a few concrete examples of background materials were suggested. I would like to urge you to use the submission tool through the BCH Management Centre and thereby trigger the regular review process by the AHTEG. Please contact the Secretariat if you need any assistance to submit documents.

I think that with this we have a good basis to further improve the Guidance and to make it more practical for users. I  would like to thank you for your active inputs and I am looking forward to our next step coming up soon, which will be a broader debate of the online forum & AHTEG on a different topic.

Best wishes
Helmut