Abbreviation CIRAS Founder ScotRail | Formation 1996 (1996) Region United Kingdom | |
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Type Confidential safety reporting service Purpose Provides a reporting process for rail workers to report incidents or concerns about facilities, equipment, conditions, or procedures | ||
The Confidential Incident Reporting & Analysis System (CIRAS) is a confidential safety reporting service for all workers in the United Kingdom rail industry. It operates under the oversight of the independent CIRAS Committee which is a unit of the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB). Committee membership includes members from multiple interested parties: the British rail industry sectors (freight, infrastructure, Network Rail, passenger services, and LUL), the RSSB, the British rail unions, and individuals with special expertise from industry and academia. The service is funded by the rail industry, contractors, and all rail companies.
Contents
History
CIRAS was originally created in 1996 by a team from Strathclyde University. Other rail lines expressed interest in the project and several rail lines in Scotland voluntarily joined the system. After the Ladbroke Grove rail crash in 1999, John Prescott mandated that all mainline rail in the UK come under CIRAS effective in 2000. From 2001 until 2009, the CIRAS Charitable Trust provided funding for operations. It now provides services to all rail workers and operating sectors throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
Operation
CIRAS provides a reporting process for rail workers to report incidents or concerns about facilities, equipment, conditions, or procedures. CIRAS provides no-charge contact solution for rail industry employees to report concerns by telephone call, texting, postal notification, or Internet web submission. A CIRAS investigator collects further information for each report and works to see that it is as anonymous as possible. These reports are sent to the responsible rail company for review, action, and response. Reports are categorized by operational function, location, and theme or topic. Analyzed reports are published by CIRAS in its Sector Reports. CIRAS is responsible for notifying the original reporter of the resolution of the problem. Selected reports are also published in the bi-monthly CIRAS Newsletter.
Significance
CIRAS is recognized as creating one of the safety industries taxonomies to classify human error and accidents. It is an example of a reporting system which collects reports, including "near-misses", as a means of prevention instead of reporting only adverse outcomes.