Memorandum submitted by the Health and
Safety Executive (LR 95)
INTEGRATED TRANSPORT: THE FUTURE OF LIGHT
RAIL AND MODERN TRAMS IN BRITAIN
1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
would like to respond to the Committee's invitation to submit
a memorandum in relation to its inquiry on the future of light
rail and modern trams in Britain. The Committee may find it useful
to have some information on the way the Health and Safety Commission
(HSC) and HSE regulate safety on light rail and tramway systems,
and how this is likely to change in the future. Under the Railways
Bill, responsibility for health and safety regulation of rail,
including light railways and tramways, is to be transferred from
the HSC and HSE to the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). Subject
to Parliamentary approval, this change is expected to take place
at the end of 2005.
THE CURRENT
POSITION
2. Currently all railways, including light
railways, are subject to two different regulatory regimes which
require HSE approval or acceptance in order to pursue their activities.
The Railways (Safety Case) Regulations 2000 (RSCR) require railway
operators, including light railways (but not tramways) to obtain
HSE acceptance of a detailed "safety case" setting out
their safety procedures and arrangements. They must then follow
those procedures and arrangements and can only revise them materially
if HSE accepts the changes. The Railways and Other Transport Systems
(Works, Plant and Equipment) Regulations 1994 (ROTS) require both
railway and tramway operators to obtain HSE approval before putting
into service new, or materially altered, works or equipment, such
as rolling stock (with certain exemptions). Railway and tramway
operators are also subject to the Railways (Safety Critical Work)
Regulations 1994 (RSCW) which govern the competence and fitness
of those undertaking safety critical work, such as drivers. The
main distinction between light railway and tramways is that tramways
operate at least partly on the street; they include Sheffield
Supertram, Midland Metro, and Croydon Tramlink.
PROPOSED CHANGES
3. In September 2004, the HSC consulted
publicly on draft regulations, which would replace RSCR, ROTS
and RSCW with a single set of new regulations. These are intended
to implement parts of the European Railway Safety Directive, which
seeks to harmonise safety regulation of the interoperable (mainline)
railway across the European Union, and to set broadly similar,
proportionate requirements for other railways and transport systems.
(Other parts of the Directive will be implemented by new regulations
on the Rail Accident Investigation Branch). The new regulations
have been developed with "better regulation" principles
in mind and with the aim of making the legal framework more coherent,
reducing bureaucracy and paperwork, and ensuring that responsibility
for maintaining and improving railway safety is placed squarely
on operators.
PROPOSED NEW
REQUIREMENTS
4. On 8 March 2005 the HSC considered stakeholders'
responses to its published proposals and agreed on amended draft
Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations
(ROGS). The draft Regulations require transport system operators,
including light rail and tram operators, to establish and maintain
a safety management system that meets specified requirements.
In the case of railways, operators must also obtain a safety certificate
or authorisation from HSE. Railway and tramway operators wishing
to bring into service new or altered infrastructure or vehicles,
which have the potential to introduce significant new risks to
the public, must ensure that they meet specified safety requirements
and good safety engineering practice and that a "competent
person" has issued a certificate verifying that they do so.
To ensure a smooth transition, the draft regulations provide for
a two-year transitional period to clear existing applications
under ROTS and for existing safety case holders to obtain a safety
certificate or authorisation. Tramway operators will also be given
a year to comply with the new safety management system requirements.
5. The draft Regulations should bring certain
advantages to light rail. The evidence required for a safety certificate
and authorisation would be significantly less than that required
for a safety case under RSCR, with emphasis on operators' overall
policy and risk control strategy, rather than on detailed safety
arrangements. Changes can be made to safety arrangements without
needing to obtain HSE's agreement, except where a substantial
change is proposed to the nature or extent of the operation. A
less frequent five-year renewal process will replace the existing
three-yearly review. The proposals embody a proportionate approach
to different transport systems and, in line with the Directive,
require the operator's safety management system to be "adapted
to the character, extent and other characteristics of the operation
in question". This proportionate approach will be reflected
in new Railway Inspectorate guidance. Tramways will not be required
to obtain a certificate or authorisation, maintaining the current
position that they do not have to have an accepted safety case
under RSCR.
6. The draft regulations also provide considerable
flexibility in relation to the safety verification of new or altered
works, plant and equipment. "Competent person" is broadly
defined in terms of having the necessary skills, knowledge, experience,
resources, and sufficient independence to ensure they will be
objective in carrying out their tasks. This enables operators,
if they wish, to appoint a "competent person" from within
their own company, or a related company, provided the broad requirements
of competence and independence can be met. These proposals are
designed to be more flexible and less costly than existing European
requirements for the high-speed interoperable railway, which involve
verification by Government appointed Notified Bodies and subsequent
authorisation by HSE. The cost to light rail and tramway operators
of the new requirements will be at least partly offset by savings
from no longer having to pay HSE fees for considering applications
under ROTS. The process will be under operators' direct control
and they will no longer have to obtain HSE's approval before bringing
new or altered works or equipment into service.
7. The HSC is advising Ministers to wait
until the Autumn before making the new Regulations. This is to
enable ROGS to be made at the same time as separate but linked
Department for Transport regulations implementing interoperability
directives, on which DfT has not yet published its proposals.
8. Looking further ahead, a draft proposal
for a European Urban Rail Directive is in circulation. If adopted
in its present form, it will establish a Notified Body verification
regime for light railways and tramways, broadly equivalent to
the regime established by interoperability directives for the
mainline railway.
March 2005
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