AMENDMENTS TO RAILWAY SAFETY CASE REGULATIONS LAID IN PARLIAMENT

HSE press release: E042:03 -13 March 2003

Changes to the regulations governing safety cases for the rail industry were laid in Parliament this week, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) announced today. The amendments, which take effect on 1 April 2003, will amend the procedures for assessing safety cases and undertaking annual audits of railway operators' health and safety management systems.

The amendments, which were the subject of consultation by the Health & Safety Commission last year, arise from recommendations made by Lord Cullen in his Ladbroke Grove Rail Inquiry Part 2 Report. They affect two duties currently imposed on Network Rail and other infrastructure controllers. The requirement to obtain an independent assessment of safety cases, in addition to HSE's acceptance, is being removed and the requirement to obtain annual independent health and safety audits of train and station operations will be transferred to individual operators.

Dr Elizabeth Gibby, Head of the Cullen Legislation Division in HSE's Directorate of Railway Policy, said: "These changes should simplify and improve the way the Regulations operate. They will also pave the way for the creation of the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), the new industry body charged with promoting health and safety. We have followed Lord Cullen's recommendation that this new body should play a strategic role in improving standards, rather than being involved in the detail of individual safety cases.

"The changes will ensure that responsibility for assessing and accepting safety cases rests squarely on HSE's HM Railway Inspectorate. Responsibility for obtaining annual health and safety audits will be placed where it belongs, on each individual operator, who will have to satisfy HSE, through written evidence in their safety cases, that they will select an appropriately independent and competent auditor.

"These changes will strengthen HSE's position as independent health and safety regulator on the railways, and help RSSB to establish its vital role of providing health and safety leadership within the industry."

HSE is revising its published guidance to reflect these amendments, which include transitional provisions designed to help the railway industry achieve a smooth change to the new audit requirements. The amended guidance should be available in April.

Notes to editors

1 The Railways (Safety Case) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003
No.579) were laid before Parliament on Monday 10 March 2003. The new edition of 'Railway (Safety Case) Regulations 2000 including 2003 amendments' (HSE ref. L52 revised 2003), which contains the text of the Regulations and HSE guidance, will be available from HSE Books ISBN 0 7176 2186 3.

2 Railway operators will need to submit a material revision to their safety case, setting out their arrangements and criteria for selecting a competent body to undertake the annual health and safety audit, and obtain HSE's acceptance, before procuring an audit under the amended Regulations. HMRI's Railway Safety Case Assessment Handbook, accessible on HSE's website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/railways/rsc.htm will be amended on 1 April to include guidance on how safety cases should be revised to reflect the changed audit requirements, and new guidance on health and safety audit generally.

3 The Railways (Safety Case) Regulations were introduced in 1994 as a means of ensuring that health and safety standards on the railways were maintained post-privatisation. They introduced a 'permissioning' regime requiring all railway operators, as a condition of operation, to prepare a safety case setting out their health and safety arrangements. The Regulations were subsequently amended in 2000, 2001 and now again in 2003.

4. The Rt Hon Lord Cullen PC's report on the Public Inquiry into the Ladbroke Grove train disaster on 5 October 1999 was published in two parts in 2001 and includes several recommendations relating to the Railways (Safety Case) Regulations. In addition to these 2003 amendments, HSE is carrying out a comprehensive review and evaluation of the Regulations as part of the wider Cullen 'agenda', during which the railway industry and other interested parties will be asked to contribute.

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