Responsibility for a system being acceptably safe does not finish when it is handed over to the customer or user of a system.

Before a system undergoes installation and commissioning (and preferably earlier in the safety life cycle), how the system will be decommissioned and disposed of should be planned; AS 61508 "Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems" emphasises this through including this as one phase of the safety life cycle.

Decommissioning and disposal of a system may also involve hazards for the personnel carrying them out.