Put simply, safety culture is “the way we do things round here”, in other words how well the employees and managers work together to tackle safety issues.  A good safety culture means that everyone shares a belief in the importance of safety and strives to ensure health and safety is done properly and that safety is always given high priority.

A more detailed definition of safety culture produced by the HSE’s Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (see 'Organising for Safety' 1993 is:

‘The safety culture of an organisation is the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation’s health and safety management’

 ‘Organisations with a positive safety culture are characterised by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety and by confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures’ (HSC, 1993).