Railtrack audits

The HMRI had the power to reject Railtrack s Safety Case and to question Railtrack on issues within TOC safety cases that they had accepted. It is pertinent to state that as far as this author is aware, no TOC safety case issue accepted by Railtrack has ever been challenged by the regulator. However, the Safety Case has been used by HMRI to test for compliance after an accident, and as it is a legal document, to mount prosecutions on the basis of non-compliance. Railtrack Safety Standards has been carrying out safety case compliance audits as part of its own safety case commitments to control risks imported by TOCs, and HMRI can sample audit the Railtrack audits as a check on their thoroughness. 

The safety case is regarded as an increasingly important audit tool and of greater potential value than off-the-shelf safety audit schemes. Local managers are expected to undertake regular safety audits and are externally audited every three years. Railtrack s safety case is audited by its own auditors and also by the Railway Inspectorate, who assess Railtrack s procedures for auditing the train operating companies compliance with their safety cases (HSE, 1997 13 ff.). 

This additional report commissioned by the Deputy Prime Minister expressed concern that the safety and standards directorate of Railtrack was insufficiently distinct from the company s commercial interests and it recommended separation of the safety departments from commercial interests in the company (HSE, 2000c). This report was also critical of accountability in the new system and recommended that HSE should oversee Railtrack s safety operations much more rigorously and should take a much more active role in checking Railtrack s audits of network users. But beyond this it also recommended that HSE should take over some of the safety responsibilities currently held by Railtrack, in particular its responsibilities for accepting and auditing the safety cases of one group of network users, namely the train operating companies. 

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