In the late 1980s and early 1990s, several major disasters, including the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise, the Clapham rail crash, and the collapse of BCCI had led to exhaustive public inquiries to learn lessons for the future.

While the inquiries into these disasters focused on the adequacy of laws and regulatory controls, they each revealed that staff had been aware of the danger but had not felt able to raise the matter internally or to pursue it if their concern was not taken seriously.

The prevailing approach was that workers did not feel it safe or acceptable to challenge malpractice, risk or misconduct in their workplace. This formed the basis of the general view that nobody was accountable for what had happened. This damaged public confidence.