Inquiries Railway Inspectorate

The King s Cross report made 157 recommendations and the Clapham Junction Inquiry resulted in 93 recommendations. These covered a wide range of issues such as those addressing the immediate cause of the accident recommendations to improve the response of the railway companies staff, training, communications, and management of safety and recommendations about the role of the Railway Inspectorate. I want to focus briefly on the Clapham recommendations as it is these which are most pertinent for this study. They are particularly interesting as they are another source of information about occupational health and safety on BR and one which was contemporaneous with this study. 

King s Cross, as the first of these disasters, was seen to cause incredible public dismay, resentment, reaction and consequently political embarrassment (Railway Inspectorate). There was a feeling that these events moved the culture and made people safety aware. In particular it caused greater attention to be paid to management structures and control. This said, not all of the recommendations resulting from the subsequent inquiries were implemented in the long term. As we will go on to discuss in Chapter 11, there were other counter-pressures to the impetus provided by these accidents. 

The Railway Inspectorate had investigated accidents to employees long before this. Colonel Robertson s Development and Functions of the Railways Inspectorate mimeo cites the first inquiry into employees accidents as being held in 1858. 

The Railway Inspectorate s oi anization at this time reveals a strong division between what it termed its traditional activities and its newly acquired health and safety duties." Railway employment inspectors who were primarily responsible for health and safety matters were numerically dominant within the Railway Inspectorate but inspecting officers, who in the main dealt with the more traditional activities, were more senior. The inspection of new works was exclusively the remit of inspecting officers accident investigation was undertaken by all members of the Railway Inspectorate. Public inquiries were undertaken by inspecting officers whereas the less public investigations were undertaken by railway employment inspectors. 

Since the Railway Inspectorate s incorporation into HSE there has been a reduction in the number of 1871 inquiries undertaken and a move to accident investigation under the HSW Act. 

The Railway Inspectorate was similarly affected. HSE s internal inquiry following the Ladbroke Grove accident identified a Railway Inspectorate under very heavy pressure. It was explained that Railtrack sought to revise many of the 6,000 Railway Group Standards it inherited from BR and that privatization was accompanied by a dramatic increase in approvals of new work, a rise from 275 in 1993 to 6,000 in 1999 (HSE, 2000h). Moreover the level of complaints also increased, thus posing additional burdens on the Inspectorate. This led the Inspectorate to adopt a more selective approach to its approval procedures than it would normally have adopted (ibid.). 

The sheer volume of new companies in the industry caused further problems. The 1995196 Annual Report reported that there were more companies active in the operation of the railway than at any stage since the early 1920s (HSE, 1996, p. vii). It continued change, particularly rapid change, carries its own risk (ibid.). This was particularly so as privatization led to an influx of newcomers to the industry, many of whom were unfamiliar with the railways environment. This led to a variety of consequential difficulties. For instance Railtrack and the Railway Inspectorate both encountered difficulties in recruiting suitably qualified personnel. And clearly the need for such personnel has been acute, partly to handle the volume of work created by the privatization but also to cope with the additional work caused by those companies and personnel unfamiliar with the railway environment. The HSE Inquiry docu-... 

Public Accident Inquiries The Case of the Railway Inspectorate , Public... 

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