On this page: Hazard identification | Risk assessment | Elimination or reduction of risks
Under the Rail Safety Act 2006, accredited rail operators are required to manage risks associated with their operations, so far as is reasonably practicable.
If you are an accredited rail operator, the Rail Safety Act 2006 requires you to provide evidence of:
- Hazard identification
- Risk Assessment, and
- The elimination or reduction of incidents ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’.
Hazard identification
You need to identify all credible incidents and hazards that could cause those incidents. Through your safety management system (SMS), you must ensure that:
- those hazards representing the greatest risk are given priority
- you consider hazards during abnormal or emergency operations, and
- all parts of your organisation are covered, including interfaces with other parties.
It is important to access engineering expertise in order to identify ways in which equipment could fail. Human factors expertise is also important in order to understand human capabilities and limitations in the way people interact with other people and the equipment they operate.
Risk assessment
You need to have a detailed understanding of the likelihoods and consequences of credible hazards and incidents. The quality of both the identification of hazards and analysis of risks is dependant upon a comprehensive understanding of what makes the system work in terms of human factors, equipment, infrastructure and relationships between them.
Risk assessment is required to be part of a process of continual improvement rather than a one-off action, and you need to demonstrate that assessments are reviewed and updated.
As well as continual improvement of risk assessments, frequent verification that key risk controls are in place is a critical activity.Elimination or reduction of incidents
As an accredited rail operator, you have safety duties under the Rail Safety Act 2006. This means that you must demonstrate that risks have been eliminated, or reduced ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’.