Becky Hickman: How RoSPA Is Driving A New Era Of Safety Standards In Middle East

For the first time in its history, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Safety Summit 2025, held under the patronage of His Majesty King Charles III, took place in Dubai last week. This landmark gathering marked a significant milestone in RoSPA's regional engagement, uniting policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders from across the GCC to shape the future of health and safety.

Key themes included creating strong partnerships with leading industry players such as ADNOC, Shell, Bapco, Aramco, Dubai's RTA, and NEBOSH, as well as addressing regional safety challenges in high-risk sectors such as oil and gas, construction, and logistics.

Notably, the Summit also introduced a pioneering 'whole life' approach to safety —expanding the conversation beyond occupational hazards to encompass homes and community wellbeing.

In an exclusive with OneArabia.me, Becky Hickman, CEO of RoSPA, shares insights on the organisation's evolving role in the Gulf, the significance of bringing the Safety Summit to Dubai, and the vision for shaping a safer future across industries and societies alike.

Can you explain the significance of RoSPA's recent strengthening of its presence in the Middle East particularly in relation to road safety?

RoSPA supports organisations around the world to help keep workers and their families safe, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and ultimately helping those organisations to grow and improve. The Middle East region is a rapidly developing industrial and business powerhouse that plays a key role in the global economy, so it is essential that health and safety standards keep pace with this progress.

Fleet driving and logistics are a critical part of many of the region's key industries — such as construction or oil and gas extraction — meaning driver training and safety must be particularly robust in order to reduce the risk of death or serious injury on the roads. We currently support over 30 RoSPA-approved centres delivering levelled qualifications in defensive driving and trainer assessor courses throughout the GCC. Our immediate initial aim is to expand this network to influence change and improve accident reduction rates in the region.

What factors do you believe have contributed to the UAE's impressive reduction in road fatalities from 2008 to 2024?

Over the past decade and a half, the UAE has achieved substantial progress in reducing road fatalities. From a high of over 1,000 deaths in 2008, the country has succeeded in bringing the number down to fewer than 400 annually. However, while the UAE's fatality rate of 3.6 per 100,000 is among the lowest in the world, the 9% increase in road fatalities between 2023 and 2024 is a reminder that ongoing vigilance is essential.

Robust continuous data collection, policy reform, and public awareness campaigns are crucial to reducing road fatalities. UAE's transparent data sharing is a model for the region — and a platform for smarter safety interventions. It enables policymakers to identify high-risk behaviours and groups.

For example, young drivers, motorcyclists, and e-scooter riders are at heightened risk, and a significant number of collisions are caused by people failing to yield to emergency vehicles. These are all issues where targeted education and enforcement can save lives. Furthermore, the government's response to emerging risks such as these shows adaptability and commitment to Vision Zero goals.

How is the demographic of younger drivers, particularly those aged 19-29, influencing road safety statistics in the UAE?

Younger drivers are more likely to indulge in risky behaviours such as speeding, tailgating and mobile phone use. They are more likely to succumb to peer pressure when carrying passengers and lack the self-regulation and experience to manage those tendencies. They haven't yet developed the skills and appropriate responses when things go wrong and often underestimate the risks or choose to ignore them.

With the rapid modernisation of various vehicle fleets in the UAE, what unique challenges and opportunities does this present for road safety?

As fleet digitization and electrification expand, there is growing demand for driver behaviour training, safety performance monitoring, and occupational road risk management. However, there are also inconsistent regulations across the region, while a lack of clarity around incorporating safety into Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) frameworks also poses operational challenges.

Amid widespread adoption of IVMS and telematics, many operators still lack an effective means of acting on safety data. Robust data can be the key to changing driver behaviours, but only if monitoring is translated into measurable improvement.

As organisations increasingly report safety metrics as part of sustainability goals, defensive driving training, telematics coaching, and incident reduction can all contribute to measurable ESG performance. Safety isn't just about compliance with existing regulations — it needs to be central to organisational culture and a strategic priority for all organisations seeking to improve risk management, workforce well-being, stakeholder reputation and operational efficiency.

Can you elaborate on RoSPA's Whole-Life Safety Approach and how it applies both to workplace safety and beyond?

Across the world, 80% of accidental deaths in working-age people happen outside of work. This means that employees are much more likely to be killed or seriously injured in places like their homes or on the road than at work. It is for this reason that RoSPA advocates for a 'whole-life' approach to safety, encouraging health and safety managers to introduce schemes and foster behaviours that keep people safe before and after their working day is done.

This makes good sense for businesses, since accidents at home impact workforce health, productivity, and morale. Employees avoid the financial strain and long-term health consequences that can result from accidents. And the wider community no longer suffers the pain of people dying before their time or the burden of supporting those whose injuries mean they can no longer work, and can become places where everyone can live their lives free of the risk of accidents.

How does RoSPA's defensive driving and fleet training contribute to enhancing fleet safety standards in the region?

RoSPA's defensive and fleet driver training is enhancing road safety in the region as it focuses not just on technical vehicle control skills or on compliance with traffic laws and regulations .

While those elements are important to safe driving we work with drivers to explore the context of their journeys and the human factors that influence their responses to the driving conditions.

We look at why the journey is taking place — is it for work, leisure, or an emergency? What are the other contributing factors — stress, deadlines, heavy traffic, or bad weather?

Our training and qualifications explore the personal triggers and motivations that influence their driving behaviour - the choices that shape their actions behind the wheel and help them to manage their responses to their driving environment and the actions of other road users.

What impact do you believe the RoSPA Awards have on promoting safety best practices among organisations in the GCC?

2026 will mark the 70th anniversary of the RoSPA Health and Safety Awards. We receive almost 2,000 entries annually from over 50 countries, covering over seven million employees, making the RoSPA Awards the world's largest health and safety awards programme.

As a large number of entries to the RoSPA Health and Safety Awards come from the GCC, we have been holding a specific awards ceremony in Dubai since 2022, enabling award winners to celebrate their success closer to home without having to travel to the London ceremony.

By celebrating those organisations who have set the highest standards in accident prevention, we highlight the important hard work that saves lives but which often goes unrecognised. Every winner is a world leader in shaping safer, healthier workplaces, setting an example for others to follow.

In your opinion, what role do recognition and awards programmes play in driving sustainable behaviour change across different industries in the UAE and GCC?

We regard a RoSPA Award as not the end but rather an important milestone in an organisation's health and safety journey. Many organisations enter every year and we are always excited to see the progress they have made. We feel that all our award winners are part of an influential community of health and safety champions, and it is always inspiring to see them sharing their experiences and best practice with others. This helps other organisations embrace RoSPA's vision of a world where accidents are no longer inevitable, and where everyone is empowered to live and work safely.

This vision requires a shift in how we think about safety — a commitment to sustainable practices, human capital, and behavioural change. It's about integrating safety into every part of our culture, not just as a set of regulations, but as a core value that shapes how we live, work, and interact with each other.