UK and European Central Government Risk Management and Communications

by Carole Edrich

Applied risk management has embedded itself rapidly into public life in Europe. Over the past 15 years, it has borrowed techniques from financial markets, physical science, IT development, and statistics in an effort to extend its reach to cover many aspects of human existence, including stewardship of the environment, all public services, public policy making, corporate governance, operations, and technology development. Many of its new users, particularly in the public sector, opt for the adoption of conventional paradigms. The apparent certainties of quantitative assessment encourage new users to discount warnings that the conventional models may be unsuitable for the tasks to which they are applied.