Rail Safety Recommendations: Backlog

Lord Pack Excerpts

Tuesday 28th April 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Pack]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reduce the backlog in implementing safety recommendations made as a result of investigations by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)]

My Lords, it is for the Rail Accident Investigation Branch and the Office of Rail and Road to monitor recommendations. We are aware of 117 outstanding recommendations of the more than 1,800 made since RAIB was formed. The vast majority of RAIB recommendations are closed within five years. However, some will require a significant programme of work to be completed across multiple organisations and therefore will be open for longer.

[Lord Pack (LD)]

I thank the Minister. The latest published list of safety recommendations from RAIB shows outstanding items dating all the way back to 2008 which have not yet been implemented. The Department for Transport told me that ensuring action on this list is the responsibility of the regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, but the regulator told me otherwise and disclaimed responsibility for managing some of that list. Can the Minister please set out the Government’s plans to resolve what is clearly an unhelpful, and perhaps even worrying, discrepancy between what the department and the regulator think about who is responsible for what?

[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.