In order for your organisation to be able to achieve its safety commitments, it must have the right expertise, the right assets and the right people. Your safety case needs to demonstrate that you have these resources, while also making it clear that you’re managing the expertise, assets and people that can’t be lost without sacrificing safety.
A safety critical task is one that, if done incorrectly due to a mistake, absence or failure, is a serious risk to safety. Team members who perform safety critical tasks have a safety critical role, including:
Your safety case needs to show that all of your safety critical tasks are being done properly. This means you need to provide confidence that your systems:
To show that your team and contractors in safety critical roles have the necessary training and competencies, you need to demonstrate your systems are able to:
How you ensure the competency of contractors is of particular interest as their skills may not be known and your control over their actions may be less than that of your own team.
If your rail activity interacts with other rail participants, managing safety in this area is known as ‘interoperability’ (as mentioned in the ‘What will keep you safe’ section). When another organisation performs rail activities under your rail licence, your safety case needs to demonstrate that:
If necessary your safety case may adopt, by reference and with any necessary modifications, one or more parts of another approved safety case.