25 January 2011 Last updated at 09:54 ET

Network Rail staff 'fear' led to false safety records

By Martin Shankleman Employment correspondent, BBC News

The RSSB said Network Rail had taken steps to address the issue

Hundreds of accidents at Network Rail were never reported because staff felt under pressure to keep the numbers down, an independent inquiry has found.

The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) said some staff were "fearful" about being marked as trouble makers.

This led to management falsely believing that the procedures they had introduced had led to a significant improvement in safety standards.

Network Rail said it needed to "heed the lessons" in the report.

The RSSB estimates that between 2005 and 2010 up to 600, or one-third of all accidents, were not notified to the company, mainly because of a conscious decision by employees.

The reasons included:

• Staff were "fearful" of reporting accidents and incidents in case they were marked out as trouble makers and lost their jobs

• Staff were discouraged by the prospect of being named and shamed on internal lists

• Section managers were "fearful" of travelling to London for a discussion with a company director

• Contractors were under pressure to meet accident targets set by Network Rail

• Contract staff on zero-hour contracts believed they would not be re-employed.

Safety targets

Network Rail had judged contractors against a target for Accident Frequency Rates (AFR).

But if their performance was rated as poor, the RSSB said that contractors worried about being suspended and felt they were less likely to win work in future.

Another initiative which was deemed counter-productive was the "Safety 365 Challenge", in which staff and departments were rewarded for having an accident-free year with gifts of certificates and branded fleeces and mugs.

But failure to get a certificate could lead to staff and departments being downgraded.

The investigators recommend the company should scrap the AFR target and reconsider the 365 safety certificate.

Overall, the pressures created by these initiatives together with the culture at Network Rail led to "unintended consequences" of accidents not being reported, according to Anson Jack, the RSSB's director of risk.

He said the company had taken action to address the problem and further steps were being recommended to create a more open and "just" reporting culture.

The inquiry, however, rejected claims by the unions that the under-reporting of accidents was linked to the payment of bonuses to senior managers.

Network Rail's chairman Rick Haythornthwaite said: "I'm grateful to RSSB for its work and to the Office of Rail Regulation and Unite for bringing this issue to our attention.

"While we can take some comfort from the report's clear conclusion that there was no link between under-reporting and executive bonuses, Network Rail needs to heed the lessons in this report if it is to achieve its ambition of a world class safety culture."