GEGN8643 Iss 1

Uncontrolled When Printed
Document comes into force 01/09/2012
GN
Guidance on Reducing Risk
Rail Industry Guidance Note

Issue One: September 2012
GE/GN8643
Published by:
RSSB
Block 2
Angel Square
1 Torrens Street
London
EC1V 1NY
© Copyright 2012
Rail Safety and Standards Board Limited
Issue record
Issue Date Comments
One September 2012 This document gives guidance on reducing risk
(previously found in the Yellow Book Issue 4) and
identifies where the guidance is out-of-date or
needs to be treated with caution.
Superseded documents
This Rail Industry Guidance Note does not supersede any other Railway Group
documents. However, it does supersede the guidance that relates to reducing risk in
Chapter 17 of Yellow Book Issue 4, Volume 2.
Supply
The authoritative version of this document is available at www.rgsonline.co.uk.
Uncontrolled copies of this document can be obtained from Communications, RSSB,
Block 2, Angel Square, 1 Torrens Street, London EC1V 1NY, telephone 020 3142 5400
or e-mail enquirydesk@rssb.co.uk. Other Standards and associated documents can also
be viewed at www.rgsonline.co.uk.
Page 2 of 14 RSSB
GE/GN8643 Issue One: September 2012
Contents
Section Description Page
Part 1 Introduction 4
G 1.1 Purpose of this document 4
G 1.2 Background to this document 4
G 1.3 Copyright 4
G 1.4 Approval and authorisation of this document 5
Part 2 Guidance on Reducing Risk 6

G 2.1 Content and layout of Part 3 6
G 2.2 Cross-references in Part 3 to other parts of yellow Book Issue 4 6
G 2.3 Areas where the content of Part 3 is out-of-date or needs to be treated
with caution 6
G 2.4 Guidance on ‘safety requirements’ 7
Part 3 Reproduction of Chapter 17 of Engineering Safety Management

Guidance (‘The Yellow Book’) issue 4 – Reducing risk 8
Definitions 13
References 14
Tables
Table 1 Reconciliation Table 6
RSSB Page 3 of 14
Part 1 Introduction
G 1.1 Purpose of this document
G 1.1.1 This document gives guidance on reducing risk. This guidance is intended to assist
organisations involved in the GB mainline railway system in understanding their
responsibilities in this area.
G 1.1.2 This document, together with GE/GN8642 and the BS EN 50126 series, provide the detail
needed to support the Common Safety Method on risk evaluation and assessment (CSM
on RA), which is essentially a framework that describes a common mandatory European
risk management process for the GB rail industry.
G 1.1.3 Part 3 reproduces without amendment the content of Chapter 17 of Yellow Book Issue 4
(YB4) that relates to reducing risk.
G 1.2 Background to this document

G 1.2.1 When the need for a large-scale revision of the Engineering Safety Management
Guidance ('The Yellow Book') became evident in 2010, the Industry Standards
Coordination Committee (ISCC) set up a sub-group to consider what guidance existed,
and what guidance was needed, related to the safe management of engineering change.
G 1.2.2 The sub-group reported in January 2012. ISCC endorsed the sub-group's main
conclusion, namely that YB4 should be withdrawn, but that guidance in YB4 in the
following areas remained relevant and useful, and should be made available to the Great
Britain (GB) rail industry:
a) Hazard identification.
b) Assessing risk.
c) Reducing risk.
G 1.2.3 The ISCC also endorsed the sub-group's conclusion that, as a transitional arrangement,
the guidance in these areas should be made available to the GB rail industry in the form
of Rail Industry Guidance Notes (GNs).
G 1.2.4 This GN on reducing risk, together with GE/GN8642 issue one Identifying Hazards and
Assessing Risk, have been produced in response to ISCC's endorsement of the
conclusion set out in G 1.2.3. These GNs reproduce the content of YB4 in these areas
without amendment, while providing caveats about those sections of the guidance that
are out-of-date or need to be treated with caution.
G 1.2.5 Phase Two of the RSSB Research and Development project T955, Safety Risk Model
hazard analysis for railway projects, will provide data to update GE/GN8642 and
GE/GN8643. This data should be available by the end of 2013.
G 1.2.6 A revised version of BS EN 50126 is currently being drafted. Parts 1 and 2 of the revised
BS EN 50126 will address the generic Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety
(RAMS) process, and methods and concepts to support its application. The revised
BS EN 50126 is currently due to be published by the end of 2013.
G 1.2.7 Guidance on the principles of the safe management of engineering change and related
regulatory requirements is available on the ‘management of engineering change’ page at
www.rssb.co.uk.
G 1.3 Copyright
G 1.3.1 Copyright in the Railway Group documents is owned by Rail Safety and Standards Board
Limited. All rights are hereby reserved. No Railway Group document (in whole or in part)
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or means,
without the prior written permission of Rail Safety and Standards Board Limited, or as
expressly permitted by law.
Page 4 of 14 RSSB

G 1.3.2 RSSB members are granted copyright licence in accordance with the Constitution
Agreement relating to Rail Safety and Standards Board Limited.
G 1.3.3 In circumstances where Rail Safety and Standards Board Limited has granted a particular
person or organisation permission to copy extracts from Railway Group documents, Rail
Safety and Standards Board Limited accepts no responsibility for, nor any liability in
connection with, the use of such extracts, or any claims arising therefrom. This
disclaimer applies to all forms of media in which extracts from Railway Group Standards
may be reproduced.
G 1.4 Approval and authorisation of this document

G 1.4.1 The content of this document was approved by Multifunctional Standards Committee on
11 June 2012.
G 1.4.2 This document was authorised by RSSB on 26 July 2012.
RSSB Page 5 of 14
Part 2 Guidance on Reducing Risk

G 2.1 Content and layout of Part 3
G 2.1.1 Part 3 reproduces without amendment the content of Chapter 17 of YB4 that relates to
reducing risk. Where guidance on safety requirements has been deleted, this is shown in
square brackets with the comment ‘text deleted’, ‘paragraph deleted’ or ‘section deleted’.
G 2.1.2 To allow references to individual paragraphs and lists in Part 3, the text of Chapter 17 of
YB4 has been re-formatted and re-numbered.
G 2.1.3 The reconciliation table below allows the reader to cross-refer between sections of Part 3
and sections of YB4.
Title Section of Part 3 Section of YB4

Guidance from volume 1 (of Yellow 1 17.1
Book issue 4)
Reducing risk 1.1 17.1.1
Safety requirements 1.2 (section deleted) 17.1.2
General guidance 2 17.2
Additional guidance for projects 3 17.3
Setting safety targets 3.2 (section deleted) 17.3.1
Apportionment of Random Failure targets 3.3 (section deleted) 17.3.2
Assignment of Safety Integrity Levels 3.4 (section deleted) 17.3.3
Apportionment of Safety Integrity Level 3.5 (section deleted) 17.3.4
Software safety requirements 3.6 (section deleted) 17.3.5
Maintenance 3.7 (section deleted) 17.3.6
Managing Human Factors 3.8 (section deleted) 17.3.7
The Safety Requirements Specification 3.9 (section deleted) 17.3.8
Additional guidance for maintenance 4 17.4
Reducing risk through maintenance tasks 4.2 17.4.1
Reducing risk when assets fail 4.3 17.4.2
Reducing risk to staff 4.4 17.4.3
Safety requirements for maintenance 4.5 (title changed to ‘Additional 17.4.4
considerations for
maintenance’)
Related guidance 5 17.5
Table 1 Reconciliation Table
G 2.2 Cross-references in Part 3 to other parts of Yellow Book Issue 4

G 2.2.1 Cross-references in Part 3 of this document to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.
These are identified by a note in the text of Part 3.
G 2.3 Areas where the content of Part 3 is out-of-date or needs to be

treated with caution
G 2.3.1 No areas have been identified where the content of Part 3 is out-of-date or needs to be
treated with caution.
Page 6 of 14 RSSB

G 2.4 Guidance on ‘safety requirements’
G 2.4.1 Chapter 17 of YB4 included guidance on safety requirements. The ISCC endorsed the
conclusion that the guidance in YB4 on safety requirements was out-of-date, in particular
due to the introduction of the CSM on RA, but updating of YB4 was not necessary or
desirable as guidance on safety requirements is covered elsewhere. This guidance
includes:
a) BS EN 50126-1:1999.
b) BS EN 50126-2:2007.
c) Guidance produced by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) on the application of the
CSM on RA, sections 3.57 to 3.60.
d) Guidance produced by the European Railway Agency (ERA) on the application of

the CSM on RA, Annex I, section 3.
RSSB Page 7 of 14
Part 3 Reproduction of Chapter 17 of Engineering Safety

Management Guidance (‘The Yellow Book’)
issue 4 – Reducing risk
Reproduction of the content of Chapter 17
of Yellow Book issue 4, Volume 2
Reducing risk; Safety requirements [deleted]

Fundamental from volume 1: Reducing risk
Your organisation must carry out a thorough search for measures which control overall risk on the
railway, within its area of responsibility. It must decide whether it is reasonable to take each measure.
It must take all measures which are reasonable or required by law. If it finds that the risk is still too
high after it has taken all measures, it must not accept it.
[Fundamental from volume 1: Safety requirements. Deleted]
1 Guidance from volume 1

1.1 Reducing risk
1.1.1 In order of priority, you should look for:
1. Ways to get rid of hazards or to reduce their likelihood;

2. Ways to contain the effects of hazards; and
3. Contingency measures to reduce harm if there is an accident.
1.1.2 When searching for measures to reduce risk, you should bear in mind that safety is
highly dependent on how well people and equipment do their job. You should avoid
relying completely for safety on any one person or piece of equipment.
1.1.3 You should look for ways of controlling hazards introduced by your work as well as
hazards that are already present in the railway. Even if your work is designed to make
the railway safer, you should still look for measures you could take to improve safety
even further.
1.1.4 See Chapter 15 for the rules used in the UK for deciding when you have done enough.
[Notes: Cross-references to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.
Guidance on how to decide when you have done enough to reduce risk to a level that
is As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) can be found in the RSSB publication
‘Taking Safe Decisions’.]
1.1.5 If you are a maintainer, you should regularly reassess the risk and decide whether you
need to do anything more. In many countries you will have a legal duty to do this. In
the UK, this duty is set out in section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act
1974.
1.2 Safety requirements [Section deleted]
2 General guidance
2.1 [Paragraph deleted]
2.2 The following is a widely accepted order of precedence for reducing risk:
1. Re-specify or redesign to eliminate hazards or reduce their likelihood.

2. Reduce risk in the design, by adding safety features.
Page 8 of 14 RSSB
Reproduction of the content of Yellow Book Issue 4, Volume 2
Chapter 17 – Reducing risk, Safety requirements

3. Reduce risk by adding warning devices.
4. Reduce risk through procedures and training.
5. Reduce risk by adding warning signs and notices.
2.5 You should review the standards which are applicable to your work. If the risk comes
completely within accepted standards that define agreed ways of controlling it,
evidence that you have met these standards may be enough to show that you have
controlled the risk, but, before you decide that just referring to standards is enough,
make sure that:
a. the equipment or process is being used as intended;

b. all of the risk is covered by the standards;
c. the standards cover your situation; and
d. there are no obvious and reasonably practicable ways of reducing risk further.
2.6 If a standard does not completely cover the risk, its provisions may still provide a
useful starting point for measures that do cover the risk.
2.7 You should not just consider standards with which you must comply. If you are
looking for measures to control a hazard, you may find tried and tested solutions
which will be effective in optional standards.
2.8 If at any point you discover that the measures in a standard are not effective for
controlling risk when applied as intended, you should bring this to the attention of the
body issuing the standard.
3 Additional guidance for projects

3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 A project carrying out safety-related work should identify the hazards and accidents
that may result from the work, assess the risk associated with these, control the risk to
an acceptable level and set safety requirements to ensure this level of risk is met.
There is a legal requirement to assess the risks involved in safety-related work. [Text
deleted]
3.1.2 [Paragraph deleted]
3.2 Setting safety targets [Section deleted]

3.3 Apportionment of Random Failure targets [Section deleted]
3.4 Assignment of Safety Integrity Levels [Section deleted]
3.5 Apportionment of Safety Integrity Level [Section deleted]
3.6 Software safety requirements [Section deleted]
3.7 Maintenance [Section deleted]
3.8 Managing Human Factors [Section deleted]
RSSB Page 9 of 14

3.9 The Safety Requirements Specification [Section deleted]
4 Additional guidance for maintenance

4.1 Introduction
4.1.1 The way you plan, implement and review your work should make sure that the part of
the railway that you are responsible for stays within the parameters required to keep it
safe.
4.2 Reducing risk through maintenance tasks

4.2.1 When you have collected all of the risk data, you should decide what maintenance
work you need to do to control risk. You should also decide when you are going to do
it. Examples of maintenance work that you should consider are:
a. checking tolerances using calibrated gauges and measuring instruments

(sometimes tolerances may be checked by automatic equipment such as track
recording equipment);
b. examining equipment for damage and wear;
c. non-destructive testing;
d. observing that equipment does what it is supposed to; and
e. running tests.
4.2.2 You should also decide what action should be taken to correct safety problems that
you find during maintenance and to restore optimum functionality. Examples include:
a. cleaning and adjusting equipment;

b. replenishing consumable items;
c. refurbishing and replacing worn and damaged parts;
d. modifying parts;
e. changing the way parts are connected together; and
f. taking a part out of use.
4.2.3 When you decide that you need to do something to control a hazard, you should also
identify all of the hazards that arise from doing the work and control them as well.
Typically, these hazards may affect the safety of your staff and other parts of the
railway. You may be able to remove some hazards by changing the way that you do
maintenance to remove the opportunity to make mistakes. For instance, if you provide
a spanner of the correct size for a task instead of an adjustable spanner, you remove
the opportunity to misadjust or damage an asset.
4.2.4 You might need to agree with other organisations how you are going to change a part
of the railway or change the way the railway is operated to make sure it is safe enough
to maintain. For example, you might have to provide additional facilities or restrict
train movements so that your staff can safely access parts of the railway.
4.2.5 When you have put all of these actions into practice, you should regularly review your
safety record. The way you monitor risk will help you to decide whether you are still
reducing risk to a low enough level (see Chapter 16).
[Note: Cross-references to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.]
4.3 Reducing risk when assets fail

4.3.1 If you are achieving your organisational goals, you should be minimising the number
of failures that occur. Where a part of the railway for which you are responsible does
fail, it is important that your decisions and the actions you take minimise the effect of
the failure on safety.
Page 10 of 14 RSSB

4.3.2 It is important to understand what constitutes a failure. In the simplest sense, a failure
becomes apparent when an asset is unable to deliver one or more of its functions
during normal operations. However, you should also look for hidden failures, which
are those events that occur that could contribute to a failure when something else
happens. If an asset moves outside a defined safety tolerance, it may contribute to a
failure. For example, loose permanent way components within a point layout may only
become apparent when the point operating equipment fails (see Chapter 16). Ideally,
your maintenance programme will address this, although it is not always practicable to
do this.
4.3.3 When assets fail, you should make sure that you collect enough information about the
circumstances of the failure so that you can identify the cause. When you decide what
needs to be repaired, you should consider both the equipment that has failed and
other parts of the railway that could have contributed to the failure. To help you to
prioritise your response to failures, it is good practice to classify failures based on the
risk arising (for example, high-, medium- or low-risk failure). It is also good practice to
apply a hazard rating to failures to reflect the context of the failure (such as associated
line speed, type and level of traffic and location). Many organisations have created
registers of asset types, failure modes and locations to ensure consistency of
classification and hazard rating and therefore of prioritisation and failure response.
4.3.4 When you repair an asset, you should restore the defective components to working
order within the safety tolerances that apply. This might include adjusting and
resetting components or replacing a broken component with a new one. Before you
return an asset to service, you should make sure that it safely performs the function
for which it is intended.
4.3.5 If you have to make a temporary repair, you should look for additional risk and decide
whether you need to make any changes to your maintenance programme or impose
restrictions. You should make sure that a permanent repair is completed or arrange
for a permanent change to ensure safety. For example, when a broken point switch
rail is removed, signalling circuits may have to be temporarily altered. You should
make sure that any temporary wiring is clearly identified and maintained until the
points are restored to use or a full recovery is made to abolish the points.
4.4 Reducing risk to staff

4.4.1 Your organisation should plan your work to reduce risk exposure to staff to an
acceptable level. Where safety incidents occur, you should collect enough information
about the circumstances so that you can identify the cause. You should encourage
your staff and your suppliers to report all safety incidents and near misses that occur.
Remember that near misses are a valuable contribution to understanding the
circumstances that could lead to accidents.
4.4.2 It is good practice to carry out workplace risk assessments and then review them
regularly and whenever circumstances or conditions change.
4.4.3 Many organisations have implemented a ‘Work-safe Procedure’, which encourages

personnel to stop work and report if they decide that something is unsafe.
4.5 [Safety requirements] Additional considerations for maintenance

RSSB Page 11 of 14

4.5.5 It is good practice to set tolerances for your maintenance periodicities so that you can
build some flexibility into your planning and anticipate a degree of late maintenance
visits, without incurring additional risk.
4.5.6 You should determine absolute safety limits for each component and then decide how
much tolerance you should build in to your maintenance specifications to allow for
system degradation between each maintenance visit.
4.5.7 Historically recommended settings and maintenance periodicities should be available

from standards or from operation and maintenance manuals provided by
manufacturers. If you are going to be responsible for maintaining new equipment, you
should find out where these are specified. The tolerances you set and the risks that
you have to control will influence how frequently you will maintain the equipment that
you are responsible for.
4.5.8 It is good practice to apply risk-based maintenance techniques to help you decide
what to do and when to do it. This technique considers how assets can fail and the
consequence in terms of safety and cost compared with implementing maintenance
tasks. This should allow you to tailor your maintenance specifications and
maintenance periodicities to cater for different levels of risk (for example, high risk,
medium risk and low risk). This will help you to use your maintenance resources more
efficiently and reduce risk to your maintenance staff by reducing their exposure to the
railway environment.
4.5.9 Some types of asset may also benefit from a condition-based maintenance regime,
particularly where asset age, location and use varies. In this case, the maintenance
that you do and the frequency that you do it should be related to wear and the age of
the asset.
4.5.10 If you decide to set a single maintenance specification and maintenance periodicity for
each different asset type, you should make sure that the worst-case degradation is
taken into account.
5 Related guidance
5.1 Chapter 11 provides guidance on safety planning.
5.2 Chapter 15 provides guidance on the safety analysis processes which should be
carried out before setting safety requirements.
[Notes: Cross-references to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.
Guidance on the safety analysis process is reproduced without amendment from YB4
in GE/GN8642.]
5.3 Chapter 16 provides guidance on monitoring risk.
Page 12 of 14 RSSB
Definitions
In general, the guidance in Part 3 is written in plain language, but a few specialised terms are used. In
this guidance note they have the following meanings.
Hazard
A condition that could lead to an accident.
Maintenance
Maintenance is used in its ordinary English sense of ‘keeping something fit for service’,
including, where necessary, replacing a worn-out part of the railway with a new part. So in
this guidance, maintenance includes what some people call ‘renewals’, ‘alterations’,
‘upgrades’ and ‘enhancements’.
Risk
The rate of occurrence of accidents and incidents resulting in harm (caused by a hazard)
and the degree of severity of that harm.
Safe
Something is considered to be safe when the risk associated with it is controlled to an
acceptable level.
RSSB Page 13 of 14
References
The Catalogue of Railway Group Standards gives the current issue number and status of
documents published by RSSB. This information is also available from
www.rgsonline.co.uk.
RGSC 01 Railway Group Standards Code

RGSC 02 The Standards Manual
Documents referenced in the text

RSSB documents
GE/GN8642 Guidance on Identifying Hazards and Assessing Risk
Taking Safe Decisions Taking Safe Decisions – how Britain’s railways take
decisions that affect safety. GD-0001-SKP. RSSB,
2009
T955 Safety Risk Model hazard analysis for railway projects
Other references
BS EN 50126-1:1999 Railway applications – The specification and
demonstration of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability
and Safety (RAMS) – Part 1: Basic requirements and
generic process
BS EN 50126-2:2007 Railway applications – The specification and
demonstration of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability
and Safety (RAMS) – Part 2: Guide to the application of
EN 50126-1 for safety
CSM on RA Common safety method on risk evaluation and
assessment, Regulation 352/2009/EC (OJ L108,
29.4.2009, p.4)
ERA guide on the application of the Guide for the application of the Commission Regulation
CSM on RA on the adoption of a common safety method on risk
evaluation and assessment as referred to in Article
6(3)(a) of the Railway Safety Directive, European
Railway Agency, ERA/GUI/01-2008/SAF, VERSION 1.1,
06/01/2009
HSAW Act Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974
ORR guidance on the application of Guidance on the application of the common safety
the CSM on RA method (CSM) on risk assessment and evaluation [sic],
Office of Rail Regulation, September 2010
Page 14 of 14 RSSB

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Document comes into force 01/09/2012

Guidance on Reducing Risk

Rail Industry Guidance Note

Guidance on Reducing Risk

Guidance on Reducing Risk

Part 2 Guidance on Reducing Risk 6

Part 3 Reproduction of Chapter 17 of Engineering Safety Management

Guidance on Reducing Risk

G 1.2 Background to this document

Guidance on Reducing Risk

G 1.4 Approval and authorisation of this document

G 1.4.2 This document was authorised by RSSB on 26 July 2012.

Guidance on Reducing Risk

Part 2 Guidance on Reducing Risk

Title Section of Part 3 Section of YB4

G 2.2 Cross-references in Part 3 to other parts of Yellow Book Issue 4

G 2.3 Areas where the content of Part 3 is out-of-date or needs to be

Guidance on Reducing Risk

d) Guidance produced by the European Railway Agency (ERA) on the application of

Guidance on Reducing Risk

Part 3 Reproduction of Chapter 17 of Engineering Safety

Reducing risk; Safety requirements [deleted]

[Fundamental from volume 1: Safety requirements. Deleted]

1 Guidance from volume 1

1. Ways to get rid of hazards or to reduce their likelihood;

[Notes: Cross-references to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.

1.2 Safety requirements [Section deleted]

1. Re-specify or redesign to eliminate hazards or reduce their likelihood.

Guidance on Reducing Risk

2.4 [Paragraph deleted]

a. the equipment or process is being used as intended;

3 Additional guidance for projects

3.1.2 [Paragraph deleted]

3.1.3 [Paragraph deleted]

3.1.4 [Paragraph deleted]

3.1.5 [Paragraph deleted]

3.1.6 [Paragraph deleted]

3.1.7 [Paragraph deleted]

3.2 Setting safety targets [Section deleted]

Guidance on Reducing Risk

4 Additional guidance for maintenance

4.2 Reducing risk through maintenance tasks

a. checking tolerances using calibrated gauges and measuring instruments

a. cleaning and adjusting equipment;

[Note: Cross-references to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.]

4.3 Reducing risk when assets fail

Guidance on Reducing Risk

[Note: Cross-references to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.]

4.4 Reducing risk to staff

4.4.3 Many organisations have implemented a ‘Work-safe Procedure’, which encourages

4.5 [Safety requirements] Additional considerations for maintenance

4.5.2 [Paragraph deleted]

4.5.3 [Paragraph deleted]

4.5.4 [Paragraph deleted]

Guidance on Reducing Risk

4.5.7 Historically recommended settings and maintenance periodicities should be available

[Note: Cross-references to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.]

[Notes: Cross-references to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.

5.3 Chapter 16 provides guidance on monitoring risk.

[Note: Cross-references to other parts of YB4 are no longer relevant.]

Guidance on Reducing Risk

Guidance on Reducing Risk

RGSC 01 Railway Group Standards Code