Freight Safe Steering Group
The Freight Safe Steering Group (FS SG) provides governance and assurance to the Rail Delivery Group Freight Board (RDG FB) for the rail industry’s strategy, Leading Health and Safety on Britain’s Railway (LHSBR), and associated delivery plans. It also provides guidance to, and receives feedback from, RDG FB on risk and programme delivery expectations. The group was formerly known as the National Freight Safety Group Steering Group.
"Our aim is to protect and enhance the reputation of rail freight by continually seeking to reduce our risk profile. We provide assurance to and take direction from the RDG FB on issues relating to the collaborative delivery of LHSBR. We provide governance to NFSG and ensure that we understand the freight risk profile, using a data-driven approach. We also look to industries that collaborate well in competitive markets to learn how we can mature our approach to drive improvements."
Scope
The FS SG is the cross-industry group dedicated to leading collaborative work on freight safety. It does this by:
- providing stakeholder management and interactions on health, safety and wellbeing on behalf of RDG FB.
- producing an annual report on progress against the freight charter, with the forward programme for the next 12 months.
- taking an overview of the national risk profile for freight and providing guidance in developing mitigation strategies.
- reviewing the top five risks using dashboard and scorecard reports associated with the Freight Safe Programme, including using the Precursor Indicator Model (PIM) and Safety Risk Model (SRM).
- monitoring emerging risks through horizon scanning to inform mitigation plans.
- reviewing project delivery to understand the value added against the plan and lessons learnt.
- inducting group members and agreed deputies to the aims and operation of the NFSG SG.
- steering the National Freight Safety Group (NFSG) on the annual safety plan review.
- leading on cross-industry benchmarking to understand risks and opportunities.
- learning from high potential incidents.
- reviewing the Rail Wellbeing Alliance outputs and considering how to incorporate these into plans and outputs.
- discussing the opportunities and freight industry approach to new technologies to improve health and safety.
Membership
The group’s membership is made up of the following industry categories:
- non-passenger train operators
- infrastructure manager
- RSSB.
Chair: Geoff Spencer, RSSB
RSSB main representative: Dougie Hill
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Group members
Name Company Representing Status David Golding GB Railfreight Freight Operator Member Geoff Spencer Independent Chair Chair Henry Bates
Network Rail
Infrastructure Manager
Member
Louise Ward Freightliner Freight Operator Member Matt Farrell ORR Regulator Member Mel Hill Gravity PR PR Representative Observer Neil Ethell
DB Cargo
Freight Operator
Member Penny Hattam RSSB RSSB Member Philip Hassall FS Programme Manager Independent Member Rob Smith Gravity PR PR Representative Member Rob Williamson Network Rail Infrastructure Manager Member Tim Shakerley Independent consultant – Wagon Condition Independent Member
