Rail Safety Recommendations: Backlog

Lord Berkeley Excerpts

Tuesday 28th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

We can certainly look into the response that the noble Lord has received. Obviously, we all know, sadly, that accidents happen on the railways, despite Great Britain having one of the safest railways in Europe. It is down to RAIB to identify what happened and issue recommendations that aim to avoid similar incidents happening again. As he quite rightly says, the Office of Rail and Road then assesses the action taken by those to whom RAIB has directed recommendations, using clear criteria and experts, before deciding when or whether they can be closed. Clearly, as I think the noble Lord is highlighting, some of the responses and recommendations that come out of accidents are very complicated and involve different actors to pull them together, but I am very happy to find out, if he can give me the specific detail of the cases he is referring to.

[Lord Berkeley (Lab)]

My Lords, given RAIB’s success in detecting what went wrong with various different accidents and making the recommendations—some are late but some of the recommendations are responded to very quickly—have the Government thought of extending its remit to the roads? Some 1,600 people die on the roads each year, compared with 14 on the railways. Maybe a similar arrangement for roads would save a great many lives.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

My noble friend touches on a subject very dear to my heart. I find it quite extraordinary how we are prepared somehow to tolerate the excessive numbers of deaths and serious injuries on our roads. He makes an interesting proposition and I will endeavour to look into it on his behalf.