First ORR health and safety report - Britain has one of Europe's safest railways, but there can be no room for complacency

Britain has one of the safest railways in Europe, but some underlying safety trends warn that there can be no room for complacency, Ian Prosser, the Office of Rail Regulation's (ORR) director of rail safety said today at the launch of regulator's first health and safety report.

The new annual ORR health and safety report (http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.2457) provides an analysis of the state of health and safety across the rail industry in 2009/10, with headline commentary on the performance of Network Rail, train and freight operators, and London Underground / Tube Lines. The report defines and cites best practice across the rail industry, highlights areas for attention, and explains the regulator's role in ensuring the railways continue to be challenged to deliver excellence.

Key findings from this year's report include:

Britain’s railways continue to be amongst the safest in Europe - a key international safety indicator, the RSSB’s precursor indicator model for system safety risk to passengers and the public at level crossings, showed an 11.35% improvement in 2009/10.

Whilst worker safety is improving there are concerns about track worker safety - the past year was marked by three worker fatalities, and safety in terms of overall harm got worse last year.

Significant concerns about the reporting of minor injuries within Network Rail and its contractors.

Despite a positive overall picture on passenger safety the short-term trend on passenger harm is up - mainline railway overall passenger harm went up for the first time in seven years; this trend is dominated by injuries at stations.

The industry needs to raise its game on occupational health - there are significant gaps in the information that the industry holds on occupational health.

Ian Prosser said:

"This first annual ORR health and safety report shows that Britain has one of the safest railways in Europe. However, our report also highlights some deeply concerning track worker and passenger harm safety trends which underline that there can be no room for complacency.

"While we are in a period when economic issues are, quite rightly, at the forefront of the rail sector’s thinking - the regulator takes the firm view that a safe railway is an efficient railway.

"The regulator will always support successes and enable improvements. Excellence in health and safety culture and risk control must become the goal for the industry so that our railways can maintain improvements in safety, alongside greater efficiency and value for money, through world class systems, processes and leadership."

The ORR health and safety report has been issued through the regulator's new 'news-by-email' service. The service will provide updates on ORR's major announcements, data publications and regulatory enforcement activity. Sign-up to ORR's news-by-email service - http://rail-reg.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=36ea8663f596ae78980625801&id=0e4510c12a

Notes to editors

The ORR Health and Safety Report is a web-based publication. View the report in full - http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1210

The report covers safety performance in the financial year 2009-10.

ORR's frontline inspectors check railway safety arrangements across the GB rail network all year round. During 2009/2010 ORR's inspectors served 38 notices (13 prohibition notices and 25 improvement notices) across the rail industry and completed two prosecutions as a result of significant failures combined with significant risks posed to workers or passengers.

The report includes some of the latest rail safety data available from the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB). View RSSB's website - http://www.rssb.co.uk/Pages/Main.aspx