Office of Rail Regulation

Sustainable development - Introduction

ORR has a number of statutory duties under the Railways Act 1993 of which we must take account when performing our functions as a safety and economic regulator. Two of these relate specifically to sustainable development and environmental issues, namely:

• to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development; and
• to have regard to the effect on the environment of activities connected with the provision of railway services.

The goal of sustainable development is defined in the UK Government’s 2005 strategy document Securing the Future – delivering UK sustainable development strategy as:

“to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life, without compromising future generations.”

Our approach to delivering our duties in the context of meeting this goal is set out in our sustainable development policy statement.  This was produced following consultation with the industry and relevant stakeholders in October 2006 and reflected in our conclusions on our sustainable development and environment duties published in April 2007.  Our conclusions document also sets out how we will deliver our policy.  All relevant documents can be found in the related links section on the right.

One of the commitments set out in our conclusions document was to review and reissue our environmental guidance, which is issued in accordance with the current environmental licence condition, to ensure that it is fit for purpose.  On 13 December 2007, having consulted the industry on our proposals, we published our revised Environmental Policy Guidance document, which includes details of the environmental key performance indicators (KPIs) that the industry has proposed we publish on its behalf.  Copies of both the Guidance document and the industry KPI proposals can be found in the related links section.

Also available in the relevant links section are copies of two reports from our consultants Enviros Consulting Limited, one benchmarking ORR against examples of best practice amongst transport sector bodies and other Government regulators and the other summarising the consultation responses we received.

In respect of issues that impact on the environment it is important to make clear that we have no powers conferred on us to enforce environmental legislation - for instance to require a railway body to remedy instances of environmental nuisance.  The responsibility for enforcing such actions lies with the Environment Agency (in England and Wales), the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) (in Scotland), local authorities or affected individuals.

Any questions relating to sustainable development should be addressed to either: