"Safety Case Management for Nuclear, Defence and Energy."

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What other type of work is within Sage's capabilities?

We have considerable experience in cases where public re-assurance is needed. We use the precautionary principle to show that the measures taken to avert problems are sufficient to remove any concern.

We can analyse Business Risk, to establish what types of events could cause business disruption and what measures are justified to avert the risk to the business. Business Continuity Management and planning Recovery from Disaster are most important aspects of today's business life.

We can deal with any circumstance where cost needs to be justified against benefit, to give quantified solutions that can withstand audit. We believe in listening to people's concerns and can advise in this area.

2. We are bidding for work that has Safety Management requirements laid down in Defence Standards and Joint Service Publications (JSP). Can you advise us?

Yes. We are fully familiar with the contents of various safety related JSPs associated with MOD contracts. These include JSP 392 for radiological protection, JSP 418 for Environmental matters, JSP430 for ship safety, JSP454 for land systems equipment safety, JSP 482 for explosive safety, JSP518 for nuclear safety and many others (for example – JSP 445, JSP 471, JSP 498, JSP 503, JSP 520, JSP 538)

We are also familiar with Defence Standards in our field, of which Def Stan 00-56 is one of the more important.

We are very happy to work with larger organisations to assist in the preparation of compliant bids. Please feel free to have an informal discussion of your needs or concerns with us.

3. What is your response if you are offered work outside your capability or capacity?

We will at once make the position clear. If we could tackle the task, but with some additional assistance, we will discuss this option up front with our client. We will never subcontract without the full knowledge of the client.

4. Will the person with whom the contract is negotiated be with us throughout the delivery?

Yes. If the work involves several of our team, this will be made clear at the outset, but one of the Directors who negotiated the contract will be in close contact throughout the work. We are a small organisation and will keep in touch.

5. Can you undertake peer reviews?

Yes, we have extensive peer review experience. Should a particular deep specialisation be required for part of the work that we do not hold, we will state so immediately and see whether the work could be split or whether we could subcontract that element to an agreed third party.

6. Can you assist in developing a contract specification?

Yes, we can, even though we might be unable to bid for the actual contract to carry out the work.

7. What are your preferred terms?

Where the task can be defined in advance, we prefer to work to fixed price contracts. If not, we are happy to work on any basis, from agreed hourly rates, to initial hourly rates until the work can be more fully defined. We are happy to provide call off support.

We will invoice on completion for short tasks, but if the task is spread over several months, we will seek to arrange stage payments based on achieving milestones.

8. We have a novel safety assessment. Can you help?

We are very happy to tackle novel situations. We have applied the basic principles of risk management to various situations and can readily adapt our processes to fit new concepts. Please discuss any possible requirements with us.

9. Can you run organise and run an emergency exercise?

Yes, we have extensive experience, from table top discussions to full scale multi-day exercises involving all emergency services and political inputs, with media presence.

We can arrange prior training for those involved, working up to participation in major exercises.

10. What are your recruitment requirements?

We are always glad to hear from anyone who feels that their skills could complement the types of work we do.

11. Can you work as part of a larger consortium?

Yes, we have often worked as part of a larger team and can fit seamlessly into any organisation to work on part of a contract. We have often provided very specialised expertise to support far larger organisations in bidding for work. We are very happy to discuss any such involvement.