Full statement to The Ferret from Richard Longden, INEOS Group Communications Manager, by email on 4 December 2015 Grangemouth has one of the best safety records in the chemicals industry and 2014 was its best ever year at Grangemouth. INEOS' world wide safety record across its 65 sites is now twice as good as the industry average and is on a continuously improving trend. Safety, health and environment performance is the company's highest priority. Grangemouth continues to invest in its site infrastructure; it has a strong relationship with the HSE Executive and makes continuous improvement in its performance each year. INEOS operates to strict regulations that are set by the national environment agencies, of the countries in which we operate. We are committed to ensuring that our facilities have as low an impact as possible on local people and the environment and we continue to work in close partnership with community groups and other stakeholders to ensure that we are a responsible neighbour. To suggest that INEOS does not take its commitment to Safety health and environmental performance seriously is simply baseless. In respect of your comments regarding our identification of "safety critical tasks" associated with "major accident hazards”. Under the COMAH Regulations all Operators, including the INEOS site at Grangemouth, must define all major accident hazards and implement management systems and procedures to mitigate. The Regulators continually inspect our activities to ensure compliance. As with all operators we work closely with the Regulator to identify improvements and to drive towards minimising any residual risk. As we have informed you previously, we are regularly inspected and held to account by the Regulators and they described the number of improvement notices at Grangemouth as “not exceptional given the size and complexity of the facility.” It also stated that there was no immediate risk from the site. As you have highlighted the Petroineos Refinery currently has one open improvement notice associated with water draining. We are working together with the HSE to set a standard on procedures / risk assessment that can then be shared with the Industry as best practice. For this reason both parties have agreed to extend the notice to ensure we achieve the best possible outcome for the Industry. As you mention our SEPA environmental rating has been reviewed and we’re pleased to say has successfully improved, this is recognition of the year on year improvement in areas such as flaring, emissions to both air and water quality. We have had a full inspection programme from the Regulator as well as internal verification with excellent level of compliance. We have had a number of formal inspections that have resulted in required action over the years. In respect of your comment of “action legal” we would point out that when an action is raised during a Regulator inspection it can be categorised in a number of terms. “Action legal” is the lowest level of action that they can issue to an Operator. This is not unusual for facilities as complex as Grangemouth however we want to aspire to be ‘best in class’. To this end we will continue to work closely with HSE, employees and the community to address each and every issue and concern as they arise. In 2015 we have continued to improve over our 2014 performance and this has been recognised and assessed by ourselves and by the appropriate Regulators.