Health and safety regulation

This section highlights our work as the safety authority for the railway industry in the United Kingdom.

Accident and incident investigation

Our inspectorate investigates breaches of health and safety legislation on the railways.

This section contains details of recent major rail incidents and provides detail on how to report serious incidents to us.

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR 95)

The Regulations require deaths, certain injuries resulting from accidents, instances of specified diseases, and specified dangerous occurrences, which arise out of or in connection with work activities or undertakings covered by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSW Act) to be reported to the relevant enforcing authority. For railways this will in most cases be the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). A practical guide to the reporting of serious incidents on the railway is available on our website. Comprehensive (non-industry specific) guidance on RIDDOR is available on HSE’s website.

Regulation and certification

The Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 (ROGS) contain much of the safety regulation for railways and other guided transport modes.

The regulations require most railway operators to maintain a safety management system (SMS) and hold a safety certificate or authorisation indicating the SMS has been accepted by the Office of Rail Regulation. ROGS also update the legal requirements for the management of safety critical work.

• ROGS – Provides an overview of the new legislation
• Transition to ROGS - The transition period leading up to when ROGS was implemented.
• Safety certificates and authorisation - Information about safety certificates and authorisation which are mandatory for the majority of the industry.
• Safety verification - We no longer approve new infrastructure or rolling stock improvements. However, we ensure that relevant safety management systems are in place.
• Safety directive -  Details about the initiative to have standard practices across Europe
• Interoperability -  A European initiative to promote a single market in the rail sector by removing the technical problems involved in running trains between member states.

Evaluation of Railway Safety (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1997

The evaluation of the Railway Safety (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1997 (the regulations) is a formal part of the regulatory process required by the Government’s better regulation agenda.

Evaluation of Railway Safety Regulations 1999

The Railway Safety Regulations (RSR) 1999 required the installation of a form of train protection on the railway, and the staged withdrawal of Mark I rolling stock and of rolling stock with hinged doors but without central locking.

Inspections and audits

We conduct inspections and audits to check that the rail industry has the management systems in place effectively controlling health and safety risks. We also target risk areas of particular concern under ‘mandatory inspection programmes’.

• Compliance with ROGS
• Annual safety reports

Enforcement

Our policy is to aim for firm but fair enforcement of health and safety law. Issuing enforcement notices and prosecuting duty holders are some of a range of tools at our disposal.

• Our range of enforcement options available
• Details of our policy statement on enforcement
• Enforcement action
• Prosecutions

Safety guidance and research

We provide on-site and written advice and guidance on how to comply with the law.

• Railway Safety Publications - railway inspectors seek to secure compliance with the law and may refer to these publications as illustrating good practice.
• Risk management – here you can find documents providing high level guidance and general principles on the application of risk assessment
• Rail safety research – contains research, outcomes and recommendations published after major incidents.
• Internal guidance – here you will find a list of rail guidance documents used by ORR Inspectors.
• Tramway technical guidance

Key Safety topics

Our operational policy and strategic aims are contained in a number of key safety topics.

• Worker safety – information specific to the safety of rail workers.
• Infrastructure safety – safety information connected with infrastructure such as signals passed at danger (SPADs), stations, rolling stock and level crossings.
• Risk profile topic strategies – on a number of key safety issues we have identified which affect the industry.

Railway Industry Advisory Committee

This committee has wide representation and includes all stakeholders from the rail industry which provides us with information about safety.

Last updated: 5 November 2008

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