Railway Inspectorate Resources

Reactive work made variable demands on the Inspectorate. Complaints did not represent a major demand upon Railway Inspectorate time. Accidents figured rather more prominently in mobilizing resources. Accident investigation was an important part of inspecting officers workload but it figured less prominently in the work of railway employment inspectors. ... 

The Inspectorate s mobilization of resources therefore emphasized the importance of the objectives of prevention of non-compliance and the constitution of everyday compliance. This was especially the case for railway employment inspectors whose remit was, of coiurse, largely concerned with occupational health and safety. Accident investigation could take up substantial amounts of time especially if there had been a high profile accident involving the public. But this tended to be the concern of inspecting officers and was, as history would suggest, very much a public safety concern and not so much a matter of occupational health and safety. Overall therefore the Railway Inspectorate s objectives, as revealed in their mobUization of resources, were in line with the apparent legal objectives. 

Consistent with its general approach to regulation the Railway Inspectorate did not have an antagonistic relationship with the railway companies. At one level this is not surprising as in the broad spectrum of economic life BR represented a company which had high regulatory capacity in terms of resources. 

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