CRIME & SAFETY
The Taking Safe Decisions risk management framework:
How the rail industry takes safe decisions Marcus Dacre, safety risk assessment manager at RSSB, discusses how the rail industry takes safe decisions.
In In
the GB rail industry, almost every policy, investment or operational decision has an
impact on safety. Every organisation needs to understand and manage its risks, both on an ongoing basis and when it changes something.
2008, RSSB published ‘Taking Safe
Decisions’, which has supported many safety- related decisions in the rail industry and beyond.
The legislative environment has now changed; in particular, railway-specific regulations defining Common Safety Methods (CSM) have come fully into force.
Any company looking to introduce new technology onto the railway should be aware of these overarching legal requirements, as they have implications for how the safety of such technology needs to be analysed and demonstrated to the railway companies that would eventually use it on the operational railway.
Guidance from RSSB
RSSB has now launched a new version of Taking Safe Decisions.
Taking Safe Decisions sets out the consensus view of how the GB rail industry understands, monitors and manages risk in this new environment. It describes railway companies’ safety-related responsibilities and explains how these help to ensure the safety of the railway system as a whole.
The guidance is structured around three related activities that ask questions about safety-related change:
Monitoring: Is my operation safe or might I need to make a change?
42 | rail technology magazine Aug/Sep 14
Analysing and selecting options: What should I change and can it be done safely? Making a change: How do I make sure the change is safe?
Taking Safe Decisions describes a good
practice approach to safety management that is proactive, commercially sound and meets all relevant legal requirements. It will help companies to:
• Manage safety effectively on an ongoing basis;
• Deliver a change safely and demonstrate this to others; and
• Take bold decisions, such as the removal of obsolete safety measures, with confidence.
Although Taking Safe Decisions has been written primarily for decision takers working for transport operators and their suppliers, the requirements around which the framework is built relate to technical, operational and organisational matters and are therefore of relevance across a railway company’s business.
An accompanying set of worked examples demonstrates the practical application of the framework.
New guidance on the use of cost-benefit analysis when determining whether a measure is necessary to ensure safety so far as is reasonably practicable (SFAIRP) has also been published to support the document.
This guidance complements the six Rail Industry Guidance Notes on the application of the CSM on Risk Evaluation and Assessment, which were published on RGS online in June 2014.
They are:
• GE/GN8640 Guidance on Planning an Application of the Common Safety Method on Risk Evaluation and Assessment – Issue 1
• GE/GN8641 Guidance on System Definition - Issue 1
• GE/GN8642 Guidance on Hazard Identification and Classification - Issue 2
• GE/GN8643 Guidance on Risk Evaluation and Risk Acceptance – Issue 2 • GE/GN8644 Guidance on Safety Requirements and Hazard Management – Issue 1
• GE/GN8645 Guidance on Independent Assessment – Issue 1
The CSM RA sets out a risk management process that must be applied when any significant change, of a technical, operational or organisational nature, is made to the railway system.
The risk management process set out in the regulation can be applied to any change to the railway system, whether or not it formally meets the test of ‘significance’. Applying the process more generally will avoid the need for duplicate processes.
It is the responsibility of the proposer of a change to identify the hazards associated with the proposed change and to determine what safety measures are needed to control the risks to an acceptable level. RSSB will deliver further worked examples and supporting material over time.
Marcus Dacre FOR MORE INFORMATION
E:
risk@rssb.co.uk W:
www.rssb.co.uk/risk-analysis-and-safety- reporting/risk-analysis/taking-safe-decisions
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164