Impact of ROGS on the rail industry - emerging findings from independent research

Noble Denton Associates carried out a baseline survey in 2007 on the performance and impact of ROGS as part of a three-year monitoring and evaluation exercise. A second survey was carried out in 2008 and a report has been produced. A third survey was carried out earlier in 2009. All these Related documents are available below.
 
The report of the third survey provides a good indication that the ultimate objective of ROGS is on its way to being fully met. In other words, we are on our way to maintaining national standards of rail safety in line with EU requirements and are striving for continuous improvement.   

The overall key findings were as follows:

• Encouragingly, the percentage of organisations that believe changes made as a result of ROGS are having a positive impact on their business has risen from year one (35%) to year two (52%).
• Furthermore, the proportion of duty holders agreeing that standards of safety are the same under ROGS also appears to be increasing (74% in year two, compared with 64% in year one and 62% at the baseline).
• ‘Risk assessment’, the ‘annual safety report’ and ‘duty of co-operation’ all showed an increase in the proportion of duty holders believing that these processes under ROGS had improved safety.
• ‘Safety management systems’ and ‘safety authorisation’ indicated a fairly consistent proportion of duty holders believing these processes under ROGS had improved safety.
• ‘Safety verification’, ‘safety certification’ and ‘safety critical work’ all showed a decrease in the proportion of duty holders believing these processes under ROGS had improved safety.
• Encouragingly, for each of the key safety management processes implemented under ROGS, there were some duty holders who felt these processes had improved safety.
• The number of organisations agreeing that the way safety is managed in their organisation has changed under ROGS has increased over the three surveys. Reasons for change include refocusing the SMS and the onus for safety being more on the company than external agencies. Safety being less prescriptive and more structured was also noted.
• The majority of organisations in year two felt that ROGS had influenced safety related decision making, this was similar to the baseline but an increase compared with the year one survey.
• The safety culture findings were generally positive; the only area that did not score so favourably was in relation to the reporting of near misses.
• The number of people thinking that more could be done to reduce the administrative burden of ROGS has steadily decreased over the three surveys.
• All respondents who asked ORR for help in year two received help. Help was typically sought about general issues around the regulations. The majority of organisations described the help they received from ORR as either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.

Next steps

The final steps in the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of ROGS include a fourth and final survey during the 3rd to 4th quarter of 2009, followed by a second Influence Network workshop. A series of meetings will also be held with ORR representatives to gather any additional operational data. The data will then be analysed in the first quarter of 2010 in order to assess the extent to which ROGS has been successful in meeting its original aims and objectives.

Last updated: 9 July 2009

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