Safety verification & certification
The Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations 2006 (ROGS) - Guide to the Application of Safety Verification (SV) published by Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) gives guidance to the application of Safety Verification. It is primarily intended for HMRI Inspectors but may prove helpful to Industry. ORR's Guidance to ROGS also includes further information on SV.
ROGS contains provisions for the Safety Management System (SMS) to include arrangements on how SV will be managed by the Duty Holder.
The SV arrangements in the SMS must describe the process to control initial integrity risks arising from the introduction of new or altered vehicles and infrastructure.
The Duty Holder, in conjunction with the Competent Person (CP), must devise a written scheme of verification of the Duty Holder’s project (or works) assessed against a set of criteria (standards and/or tests). The CP should be appointed early in the design process to ensure appropriate selection of assessment criteria/tests.
The requirements for SV schemes are described in Schedule 4 of ROGS.
No final certificate will be required, but the written scheme, and the results of assessments, tests, and remedial actions should be retained by the Duty Holder for the lifecycle of the equipment.
Projects (or works) managed under SV do not have to be notified to ORR. There is no statutory Approval required although HMRI will be inspecting a sample of SV schemes.
The SV process will not apply if a project (or works) is subject to an Authorisation under the Interoperability Regulations, as such an Authorisation is deemed to satisfy the requirements in ROGS as a ‘verification’ suitable to control the risk.
The SV process will not apply unless the new or altered equipment is both novel to the duty holder and is like to give rise to a new risk or significant increase in risk, i.e. the project (or works) must meet both of the following criteria:
- Difference Test: the risk arising from the design is novel to the dutyholder
- Risk Test: there will be a new risk or a significant increase in risk
Projects (or works) where one, or both, of these tests do not apply will need to be managed under the Duty Holder’s SMS change management procedures.
