What we expect to see in your risk management

To be effective, risk management must be used to inform decisions on a new activity or a change before it’s made. It isn’t a compliance exercise you perform after a change is in place.

For us to be confident that you are managing your risks, we expect you to demonstrate that risk management in your organisation:

• creates and protects value and safety
• is an integral part of all organisational processes
• factors into the overall decision making process
• explicitly addresses uncertainty
• is systematic and structured
• is based on the best available information
• is tailored to the specific circumstances
• takes into account human factors
• is transparent and all-inclusive
• is dynamic and adaptable to change, and
• is continuously monitored and improved upon as the project moves forward.

Fulfilling your risk management obligations

To meet the fundamental aspects of the Railways Act in regards to risk management, you need to comply with Section 7, General safety duties of rail participants and persons working for rail participants(external link), which states:

‘(1) A rail participant must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that none of the rail activities for which it is responsible causes, or is likely to cause, the death of, or serious injury to, individuals.

(2) No rail personnel of a rail participant may do or omit to do anything in respect of a rail vehicle, railway infrastructure, or railway premises if he or she knows or ought reasonably to know that act or omission will cause, or will be likely to cause, the death of, or serious injury to, individuals.’

Guidance on how this term 'so far as is resonably practicable' is used and what it means