Richard Hines stepped up to the role of HM Chief Inspector of Railways / Director of Railway Safety at the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in June 2024. In the Railway’s 200th Anniversary year, he discusses his role, his career journey, and the health & safety challenges facing the network.
Hi Richard, many thanks for joining us. To get things rolling could you give us an overview and brief history of HM Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) and the ORR?
I’m ‘only’ the 26th HM Chief Inspector of Railways, a role that can be traced back to Stevenson himself. It’s a hugely prestigious and influential role, and I personally feel a huge sense of responsibility having been recently appointed. His Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate (HMRI – who we evolved from) has been responsible for overseeing health and safety on Great Britain’s railways and tramways and has had a role in the railway since its birth.
The boom of the commercial railway industry in the 1800s meant the Government needed to keep a close eye on the safety of its railways and rolling stock. The first inspecting officers were brought in as The Railway Inspectorate under the Railway Regulation Act, published on 10 August 1840.
The Railway Inspectorate operated for many years as a separate, non-departmental public body, but in 1990 became part of the Health and Safety Executive. It was also granted Royal Status, becoming Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate.
In 2006, HMRI was transferred to the ORR and in 2009 was renamed as the Railway Safety Directorate (RSD). In 2015, the name HMRI was reestablished as a way of recognising our rich history and past.
In terms of structure and organisation, the ORR is made up of around 370 people across its whole organisation. That’s covering the main areas of health & safety, economic regulation, consumer matters, roads and highways, as well as other supporting functions. I report to the chief executive, John Larkinson, and he and I are the two executive members of the ORR Board.
My team is around 115 people strong, and that’s a mixture of frontline regulatory inspectors, who are warranted under the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, as well as the individuals who support the delivery of our regulatory functions – inspector assistants, policy colleagues and business support teams and so on.
If you look at incidents and accidents over the history of the railway, you can see the evolving role that regulators have had in improving the outcomes for passengers, the public, and workers. For a long time, HMRI recommendations were just that – recommendations – and there was no legal requirement to act on them. However, the provision of more mature health and safety legislation made our recommendations enforceable, and that is where you start to see a step-change in the safety of the railways and the wellbeing of its staff.
So how did you come to work for the ORR / HMRI? What is your career background?
I became an apprentice straight out of school, and I’m really proud to say that. It gave me great exposure and experience in electrical engineering, and over my four-year apprenticeship I was really well looked after by some fantastic people within the industry. My employers sponsored me for a degree, and following this I became chartered. My former mentor even covered my night shifts so that I could attend university lectures. I feel so lucky to have received such amazing support!
As an electrical engineer I worked for a company which was prosecuted twice for separate incidents that involved fatalities. It was a good employer, but it did make some mistakes.
After this experience, I was really struck by the role of the regulator and how it could be so impactful in improving standards within the organisation. I saw and experienced how a collaborative relationship could be really transformational.
I joined the Health and Safety Executive in 2008 as a specialist electrical inspector, which was mainly reactive work focussed on the investigation of fatal and serious accidents, but also with proactive inspection work. After around six years I was promoted to principal inspector and after that I moved to a more senior role as head of operations in 2018.
I came across to the ORR around four years ago, initially on secondment, as head of the UK delegation to the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority (CTSA) and following that was proud to get the deputy chief Inspector’s job. The two and a half of years I spent as Ian Prosser’s deputy, gave me a brilliant grounding for the role of chief inspector. Ian was really well respected during his 16 years and gave me a great deal of support as I transitioned between the roles. Going forward, what I’ll be doing will be evolutionary, rather than revolutionary.
You’ve been in the role of Chief Inspector for nine months now, what are the main health & safety challenges you are seeing?
Great Britain’s railway health and safety record is among the best in the world. On that basis, we’re starting from a strong position and there have been lots of efforts and initiatives by many people over time to achieve that.
However, there’s more to do across many areas and it is not a time to be complacent. We need companies and organisations to focus on delivering safe operations, every day, without fail, and not to be distracted by things that are happening elsewhere.
We’ve got a significantly Victorian infrastructure married up to modern systems and there are challenges with maintaining and running that. The CP7 funding settlement we now have recognised the fact that we’re operating in a constrained funding environment, but Network Rail has a credible plan for delivery. For the next four years, their job will be to make sure they deliver to plan.
In a practical sense, anything related to climate change is a problem, not just for the future but the here and now. Each region is facing very changeable weather patterns, and we need to make sure that the network, the infrastructure, the assets, are all fit for purpose.
There’s been some good work done by Network Rail in this area over the last few years, for example work on updating its records for drainage assets and developing arrangements to define how they respond operationally to extreme weather events, which is really important. However, there are also some parts of the infrastructure that rely on, for instance, structural examinations and assessments as their primary form of risk control. Making sure that there are no delays to that process and that examinations and assessments are done to time, to the right standard, is really very important.
In terms of rail operations, we continue to see quite a stubborn rate of signal past at danger (SPAD) incidents, and there’s work needed here to define what a medium-term strategy for that might look like. In the context of the recent 25-year anniversary of the Ladbrooke Grove incident, that’s something that really needs to be addressed collaboratively.
We also have a high number of Platform Train Interface incidents across the whole of the rail network – things like track and drag incidents, for example. That’s not just on the main line but also Transport for London, and some of our other sectors such as Heritage. Greater collaboration between each of these sectors might help to improve this.
The Tram sector has made huge changes since the Sandilands incident and the recommendations that came out of the RAIB report, in particular the work around driver vigilance devices, are things that main line rail can learn from. The LRSSB has done a great job in a short amount of time, but I think making sure that there is a sustainable approach to the Tram sector is important.
Finally, in terms of personal safety, everyone should feel safe on a rail journey or while working on the network. Train operating companies are doing a huge amount, working with British Transport Police, to make sure that there are proper arrangements in place and people on the network who can intervene if necessary, but it is an area that needs a greater focus. ORR is exploring what it can do jointly with BTP in this space.
You touched on Heritage Rail there. A spotlight was thrown on safety in that sector towards the end of 2024 – what are your thoughts on that?
Heritage Rail includes around 223 different companies and the capability within the sector is truly amazing. The people working in the sector take a huge pride in what they do and their work is really very impressive.
That said, there’s a wide variability in terms of standards, how effectively they’re implemented, and, in my view. there is a need for greater standardisation. We see evidence of very good practice in the sector from some operators, but there are some gaps in terms of capability in certain locations.
I think some of that comes down to the sheer diversity of the sector. You’ve got some companies that run main line operations, such as North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and they’re quite significant in their size, employment base, and maturity in terms of health and safety management systems. Then you have some organisations which are run entirely by volunteer staff, have fewer resources to hand, and where health & safety standards may not be so ingrained.
That said, there is a huge commitment from the sector. Certainly, during my four years of working with the heritage sector, we’ve collaborated with the Heritage Railway Association (HRA) quite extensively to arrange workshops and events where we talk about practical control measures and things that the railways need to do to improve their health & safety performance and risk management. They’re always regarded as helpful and we receive very positive feedback from attendees.
You stepped up to the role of Chief Inspector just before last year’s general election. How are you finding the new Government’s approach to health & safety on the railway?
My early analysis is that there are some strong pieces of work underway to make improvements to the overall system by bringing track and train together. In terms of health & safety matters, we’re involved in discussions with the Department for Transport and Network Rail colleagues, and we’ll continue to give impartial, independent expert advice, all the way through the reform process. I do sense there is a strong commitment across the sector and a great sense of coming together to bring real benefits. That seems to be the overriding strategy. So yes, I’m optimistic.
Finally, what are your thoughts on the health & safety environment going forward?
Great Britain has a hugely proud rail heritage and amazing capabilities across the sector. We can unlock this and work together to solve some of the problems that we’re facing. There is a strong commitment within the industry toward improvement and our role is to apply our independent regulatory expertise and insight to make sure this is supported. I’m optimistic and I’m keen to be part of the solution. That’s my plan for the ORR during my tenure as Chief Inspector.
Image credit: ORR
