AbstractThis paper proposes dual risk criteria for the shipping industry based on a goal‐setting approach to safety requiring risk in the tolerability region to be as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) within which there is a prescriptive target risk level which should not be reached. The prescriptive target risk level is intended for smaller companies satisfying the current safety and classification rules, while it is expected that leading companies would embrace the dynamic ALARP approach as a means for improving the current practice in a search for a better and more economical solution. Furthermore, it is shown that it is possible to formulate the societal risk criteria fully consistent with often legally imposed individual risk criteria. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.