Network Rail agrees to independent review of safety culture

Network Rail has agreed to an independent review of how it reports staff accidents following accusations that it had under-reported incidents, allowing directors to receive £2.36m in bonuses. In a signal to trade unions and staff that he is preparing an overhaul of safety culture at Network Rail, the company's chairman, Rick Haythornthwaite, is inviting the Railway Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) to review the reporting system for so-called "riddor" incidents. Riddor stands for reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations, established by the Health and Safety Executive in 1995. The RSSB is an independent rail industry body dedicated to improving health and safety on the UK's railways. The Unite trade union, which highlighted riddor concerns at Network Rail this summer, said the review was a positive step. Bob Rixham, Unite's national officer for railways, said new evidence indicated that contractors as well as Network Rail employees were also under-reporting minor work accidents. "The under-reporting is there for all to see and nobody has picked it up," he said. "My view is that people knew about this and did not report it." A Unite health and safety official, Rob Miguel, will join the review, with the likely involvement of the government-backed Office of Rail Regulation. In an email to Rixham, Haythornthwaite said: "You will see a change in safety culture and level of engagement with staff and unions – that I promise you." Last year Network Rail suffered three worker fatalities, 85 major injuries and 100 riddor incidents. The latter figure was queried by observers including the ORR because a commonly used model for work safety, the Heinrich pyramid, shows that for every serious accident there will be between eight and 15 riddor accidents. New data shown by Rixham to Haythornthwaite in the past fortnight indicated that around 700 riddor incidents are not reported by contractors every year. In a letter to Haythornthwaite shortly before Network Rail agreed to involve the RSSB, Rixham said: "Unite believes that NR credibility has been severely undermined by these issues and you as chairman have the opportunity to instigate the change to a safer railway for rail workers and in doing so restore the credibility of NR." Haythornthwaite has publicly questioned Network Rail's management style under its outgoing chief executive, Iain Coucher, who is to be replaced early next year by David Higgins, chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority . Those criticisms are understood to have dismayed senior figures at Network Rail, who believe they deserve more credit for turning round Britain's rail infrastructure in the wake of the collapse of Railtrack at the beginning of the last decade. Coucher earned more than £1.25m last year, including £641,000 in bonus and incentive scheme payments . Network Rail's remuneration committee must consider the company's safety record before awarding bonuses. However, Network Rail says the bonus awards last year, which totalled more than £2m for senior directors, were 40% lower than the previous year's but also reflected record punctuality on the railways. Next year's bonus scheme has already been suspended pending a review of Network Rail's much-criticised remuneration policy . Unite has raised the possibility that under-reporting of minor accidents may have been driven by the fact that managers who report incidents are penalised in management safety league tables, which are taken into account during assessment of pay and bonuses. However, Haythornthwaite said the link between riddor reporting and league tables had now been broken and managers no longer gained points for low riddor reporting. A Network Rail spokesman said: "Network Rail has invited the RSSB to undertake a piece of work looking at the system and process the company, and its contractors, has in place for the reporting of minor injuries – slips, trips and falls. Improving our safety culture is a key priority for the company and we believe the RSSB's expertise in this area can be of enormous help."