THE RAILWAYS (SAFETY MANAGEMENT) REGULATIONS (NORTHERN IRELAND) 2006

Annual safety reports

18.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), any railway operator who is subject to the prohibition in regulation 3(1)(b) and (2)(b) shall send to the Department an annual safety report relating to the previous calendar year which shall contain—

(a) information on how any railway operator’s safety targets, referred to in paragraph 2(b) of Schedule 1, are met;

(b) the results achieved through putting any railway operator’s safety plans, referred to in paragraph 2(b) of Schedule 1, into effect;

(c) statistics for the common safety indicators listed in Schedule 3 insofar as they are relevant to the operation in question;

(d) the findings of internal safety auditing carried out pursuant to the procedures referred to in paragraph 2(k) of Schedule 1; and

(e) comments on any deficiencies or malfunctions relating to the running of vehicles or the management of infrastructure relating to the operation in question that may be relevant to the safety of any railway.

(2) The first annual report required under paragraph (1) shall be sent by 31st August 2007 and subsequent reports by 31st August in each subsequent calendar year.

(3) Subject to paragraph (4), the Department shall publish and send to the European Railway Agency an annual report relating to the previous calendar year which shall contain information on the following in relation to any railway—

(a) the development of railway safety including an aggregation of all the statistics reported to the Department for the relevant calendar year pursuant to paragraph (1)(c) which relate to an operation or part of an operation which is carried out on the railway;

(b) any important changes in relation to the regulation of railway safety;

(c) the development of the system for safety certification and authorisation; and

(d) the results of and experience relating to the supervision of railway operators.

(4) The first annual report required under paragraph (3) shall be sent to the European Railway Agency by 30th September 2007 and subsequent reports by 30^th September in each subsequent calendar year.

(5) Where the Department discovers, after sending an annual report, that there were errors or omissions in it then it shall send a corrected report for that year to the European Railway Agency at the first convenient opportunity and in any event by no later than the time the next annual report is due to be sent.