Achieving clarity in the requirements and practice for taking safe decisions in the railway industry in Great Britain

Historically in the Great British railway industry health and safety law has been subject to interpretation. This room for interpretation creates the possibility for different views to exist within the industry and has the potential to lead to risk aversion. In response to requests from within the industry the Safety Decisions Programme (SDP) was established to achieve clarity in the process for taking decisions. The Programme commissioned research to investigate how the public values safety and how best to build the public's values into decisions. As a result of this work, an industry publication has been published that describes the different types of decisions that are taken in the industry and the different considerations and criteria that apply to each. Several key principles emerge. The value of preventing a fatality (VPF) represents the best available measure of society's stable and underlying preferences for safety improvement and is used to help duty-holders determine whether a measure is legally required. 'Individual risk' is not a consideration in this judgement as it does not relate to the measure, but instead to the totality of risk to which categories of individual are exposed. Duty holders may voluntarily take decisions that go beyond what is reasonably practicable, for commercial reasons. These decisions might be affected by 'societal concerns' and risk aversion, but they are voluntary. The government might also choose to take such considerations into account when setting legislation. Neither of these types of decision has implications for the level at which the VPF is set.