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Health and safety enforcement

We enforce health and safety legislation on the railways. Those working in the rail industry can expect us to take action in a targeted and proportionate way, just as happens with other industries.

Enforcement powers

The Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority For Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems) Regulations 2006 (EARR) set out the enforcement responsibilities of ORR. EARR was amended in 2008 to improve clarity in the division of enforcement responsibility. Activities or premises not allocated to ORR for enforcement under EARR Activities are subject to enforcement by either the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) or Local Authorities according to the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998 (EA98).

Policy

Our health and safety enforcement policy statement (PDF PDF 88 Kb) is an important document explaining how we will enforce health and safety law. We have also adopted HSE’s Enforcement Management Model (PDF PDF 133 Kb) which provides a framework for inspectors to make consistent enforcement decisions. We have also published ORR specific guidance (PDF PDF 112 Kb) setting out how we apply the dutyholder and strategic factors listed in the EMM.

Penalties

This section provides details of the sanctions presently available to the courts in respect of health and safety prosecutions. It has been updated to reflect the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008.

Enforcement action taken

This section gives details of those in the rail industry to whom we have issued improvement or prohibition notices, and those we have prosecuted since 2006.

Copies of improvement and prohibition notices can be found on our Public register. When searching for improvement and prohibition notices you should note the following:

  • Enter Improvement and prohibition notices in the Doc Type field to find all notices on the register;
  • To restrict the search to one type of notice, enter either Improvement or Prohibition in the Collection Ref field;
  • Dutyholder name (or part of) can be entered in the Operating Company field;  
  • Searching within the Sub Type field for ESIA notice will find notices relevant to the Environment and Safety Information Act 1988;
  • The Supp Ref field contains details of which Act or Regulation has been contravened;
  • The Doc Date field can be searched using the date format ‘xx-xx-xx’;
  • The Description contains the location of premises or place of activity relating to the notice.

Last updated: 21 July 2011

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