GROUND-BREAKING PROJECT LAUNCHED TO MINIMISE NATIONWIDE GAS AND WATER SUPPLY DISRUPTION HEALIX INTERNATIONAL UNVEILS TOP FIVE RISKS FOR BUSINESSES IN 2023

The global provider of travel risk management and international medical, security, and travel assistance services found five top risks for businesses in 2023 in its annual Risk Outlook for 2023.

1. Energy Crisis

2. Deepening political polarisation

3. Increasing cyber risks

4. Diversification of global extremism threats

5. Climate risk

Chris Job, Director of Risk Management Services at Healix International, comments: “Business leaders will be well aware of the various disasters and emergencies playing out on the global stage, yet some are inadequately equipped to mitigate the risks they pose to business assets and personnel.”

MGISS, one of the UK’s geospatial technology companies, has launched a new project, part-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), to help minimise nationwide disruptions to gas and water supply.

The project, Interruption Prevention Alert Service (IPAS), will use cuttingedge technology to identify and locate development risks within close proximity of critical utility assets. Gas and water outages caused by developments are a growing problem and IPAS will offer a preventative solution, using satellite data and services to automatically detect changes to the built environment.

The challenges that utilities providers face are also likely to intensify with the Government’s anticipated easing of UK planning laws as part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, along with proposed additional investment in infrastructure and housebuilding.

Michael Darracott, Managing Director at MGISS, said: “I’m looking forward to working with our partners to promote the value of capturing, using, maintaining, and leveraging accurate and reliable geospatial data.

“We already have a significant amount of interest from operators within the water and gas sectors, and we envisage wider potential in other sectors of the UK and global economies.”