Rail Safety and Transport Bill consultation

The Department for Infrastructure acts as rail regulator and holds responsibility for a range of rail regulatory activity. This includes responsibilities as

• ‘National Safety Authority’ for rail safety matters.
• ‘Competent Authority’ for technical standards.
• ‘Competent Authority’ for regulating the train driving professions.
• ‘Regulatory Authority’ for rail passenger rights and obligations.

In addition, the Department also has some responsibilities for the Railways Infrastructure (Access, Management and Licensing of Railway Undertakings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016.

There is a lack of clarity around responsibilities for regulation and enforcement as there is a mixed picture with the Department having responsibilities for regulation and enforcement in some areas and in other areas responsibilities are split between the Department and HSENI. This is confusing for regulated entities who have to deal with multiple regulatory bodies with overlapping remits.

In Ireland there is a single rail regulatory body, the Commission for Rail Regulation (CRR) who regulate across the full spectrum of responsibilities, similarly in Great Britain the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) act as single regulatory body. During the stakeholder engagement of Phase 3 of the Rail Safety Review, there was a widespread view that there should be a single regulatory body which covers all the rail regulatory and safety responsibilities that are currently split.

The Department is proposing to establish a single rail regulatory body independent from Government.