Having completed my previous tour in the the newly form Duty Holder construct I can recognise many of the issues previously posted.
A Just Culture is very difficult to achieve, it is a question of proportionality and pragmatism. I can remember a number of cases that we had to advise the hierarchy as to what would be acceptable in the form of punishment, if any at all.
The Just Culture principle is taken very seriously within my specific area and whilst there is scepticism from the coal face the message is leaking through to others at my level.
The DAEMS system was devised to provide an independent investigation and audit facility for the just culture and links the fair and just model used by FS at a stn level to apportion any blame. I can vouch for the depth of these investigations as the buck doesn't just stop, the entire system is investigated and reported upon.
There are still issues that need to be addressed however. There are (albeit a minority) now in senior management that are destroying the shaky belief in Just Culture. This is frustrating because once confidence is broken it is difficult, if almost impossible to rebuild. The next one is that the process is too slow. A large stn like Brize can receive hundreds of DASORs a week, from the very trivial to Cat 1 AIRPROXs. There just aren't enough people in Air Safety to process all of these in a timely manner. One notable DAEMS investigation took over 6 months to conclude, leaving the individual concerned in limbo and the stn hierarchy floundering for a suitable course of action. The last one is access to ASIMS. Having ASIMS on the intranet is fine but for those deployed or just down route it would be far simpler to have a secure gateway to access ASIMS via the internet. Changes should be made to the form also to speed up the input but a broader discussion is needed on that.
Overall the system is there and working, those who comment that Air Safety staff need to be reduced really have no clue what it trying to be achieved. The Haddon Cave report was damning of the MoD and the culture that existed at the time. The world has changed and Crown Immunity from corporate manslaughter charges just doesn't exist. These very same Air Safety staff that need to be culled are there to provide the evidence to back up the Sqn/Stn Cdrs and the higher echelons when their decisions are called into question. The job needs to be done correctly without prejudice to Air Safety and if something or someone is compromising this then action needs to be taken, brushing stuff under the carpet is no longer acceptable.
We are a military organisation and risk is inherent in the frontline job. That said the bottom line is can the risk be reduce to as low as reasonably practical whilst looking at the operational necessity of completing the job.