Question

Risk registers may take various forms, but the information they contain can sometimes be extremely sensitive. In 2012 the UK government discussed whether or not to release the full risk register that had been created for the highly controversial reform of the National Health Service. The health secretary,Andrew Lansley, told parliament in May 2012 that only an edited version of this document would be made available, on the principle that civil servants should be able to use ‘direct language and frank assessments’ when giving advice to ministers. Lansley argued that if this advice were to be released routinely then ‘future risk registers would become relaxing documents of little use.’ The net result would be that ‘Potential risks would be more likely to develop without adequate mitigation. That would be detrimental to good government and very much against the public interest.’

Using this example as an illustration, discuss whether there is a tension between realistic assessment of risk and the openness that may be implicitin a risk register.

Answer 1

The above example clearly lays down the tension which is there between an assessment of risk and the transparency with which a risk register may present the same.

A risk register is ultimately a collection of the potential risks and it's impact assessment that might arise in an organisation setup. The apprehension is that a routine updation of the risk register might ultimately become a cumbersome process and might lead to the dilution in the rigor of the risk identification process. Such an outcome would lead to risks being overlooked and might compromise the mitigation measures which could have been placed.

On the other hand, if risk register is not updated on a regular basis, then the focus on risks may get diluted and the openness of the risk oriented discussion would also get compromised.