Risk management guidance

This section of the website provides high-level guidance and general principles on the application of so far as is reasonably practicable (SFAIRP) and cost benefit analysis (CBA) to railway safety.

As part of a review of our guidance on the use of CBA in support of safety-related investment decisions, we considered and responded to stakeholders’ views following a consultation (from November 2007 to January 2008). Our revised “Internal guidance on cost benefit analysis in support of safety-related investment decisions” guidance was released on 29 February 2008.

In our previous guidance we used the as low as is reasonably practicable (ALARP) acronym but our revised guidance uses SFAIRP. In practice we consider that ALARP and SFAIRP require the same tests to be applied.

Internal guidance on cost benefit analysis (CBA) in support of safety-related investment decisions (69 Kb)

Internal guidance and general principles for assessing whether health and safety risks on Britain’s railways have been reduced so far as is reasonably practicable (106 Kb)

Reasons document - Internal guidance on cost benefit analysis (CBA) (335 Kb)

Industry Guidance

The Rail Safety and Standards Board’s Taking Safe Decisions suite of guidance is aimed at helping industry’s safety decision making  – see related links.

Consultant's report

The following report was commissioned by ORR as part of our review of the cost benefit analysis guidance:

Discount Rates for Rail Safety Scheme Appraisals - NERA (131 Kb)