Health and safety strategy

As the combined safety and economic regulator for Britain’s railway, we reviewed how costs and benefits are assessed for safety initiatives, and whether reasonable practicability is systematically tested by dutyholders.

The concept of health and safety by design is to preferably eliminate, and if not eliminate to control, health and safety risks in infrastructure, rolling stock, equipment and processes by early consideration of potential risks and then dealing with those risks at the design stage.

We have produced 'Principles for health and safety on the railway' to help dutyholders understand how to meet our expectations for the high-level goals that should be achieved by the railway when complying with the health and safety legislation. It highlights the factors which should be addressed by anyone designing and putting into use new railways or rail vehicles, including major upgrades and

Our health and safety regulatory strategy sets out our approach to regulating health and safety risks created and managed by Britain’s railways. t looks at how we drive continuous improvement, deliver cost effective and safe railway, to be amongst the safest in the world.

Our health and safety regulatory approach explains what we do in regulating health and safety across the rail industry.

To help prioritise ours and the industry’s strategic focus we issue chapters, which we update as part of a rolling process, focused on the key risks from across the sector and based on incident data, risk trend analysis and the findings from our inspections, investigations and audits.

The issue of safety relating to the interface between the platform and train and the safe dispatch of trains is an area of focus for the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and the industry.