Network Rail Still Getting It Wrong Says Regulator

Network Rail has been singled out for stinging criticism in a new report from the rail regulator, labelling its systems 'ineffective' and its performance 'disappointing'.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) summarises the rail giant's performance as: 'A disappointing year with clear evidence of a poor safety culture, patchy implementation of procedures and slow progress on some key risks, often requiring formal enforcement.' The conclusion comes in the regulator's annual health and safety report 2010/11.

This notes: 'We found increasing evidence that Network Rail's internal assurance processes to assess health and safety compliance are not effective. Too often, our inspection activity revealed significant issues that came as a surprise to the company. An effective assurance regime would have found these beforehand and led to corrective action. The company cannot rely on ORR to do that which should be at the core of effective safety management. We have been disappointed that stated commitments to improve health and safety are not reliably translated into action - especially when enforcement action had already covered the issue.'

The rail operator was prosecuted on two occasions in the year covered by the report, costing it nearly £174,000 in fines and costs. It also received 12 improvement notices and two prohibition notices.

The ORR report suggests measures to address systematic under-reporting of injuries by the company and its contractors and driven by performance targets, had revealed an unacceptably high injury rate. 'The fatality and weighted injuries (FWI) is also higher than the target, and this is of more concern because this measure reflects numbers of major injury accidents, which were not under-reported and which remain unacceptably high,' the report adds. ORR was also critical of Network Rail's handling of contractors, noting it 'repeatedly missed opportunities to specify health and safety standards as part of the contractual arrangements when acting as a client, or sponsor.'

Download the full ORR report here

Source: TUC Risks

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