Office of Rail and Road

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Office of Rail and Road
Welsh: Swyddfa Rheoleiddio'r Rheilffyrdd
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Non-ministerial government department overview
Formed 5 July 2004
Preceding Non-ministerial government department
  • Rail Regulator
Jurisdiction Great Britain
Headquarters 1 Kemble Street, London, WC2B 4AN
Employees 280
Annual budget £30 million[1]
Non-ministerial government department executives
  • Anna Walker, Chair
  • Richard Price, Chief Executive
Website www.orr.gov.uk

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a statutory board which is the combined economic and safety regulatory authority for Great Britain's railway network, as well as being responsible for monitoring Highways England. As a non-ministerial government department it is operationally independent of central government.

The ORR was established as the Office of Rail Regulation on 5 July 2004 by the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003, replacing the Rail Regulator. It acquired its current name on 1 April 2015 following the passage of the Infrastructure Act 2015, when the ORR gained responsibility for monitoring highways.

Primary functions

The ORR's main functions are:

Rail

  • Regulation of Network Rail's stewardship of Britain's rail infrastructure.
  • Reviewing and revising the financial framework for the railway industry through periodic access charges reviews in which the structure and level of the allowed revenues of Network Rail are set.
  • Granting, modifying, compliance monitoring and enforcement of licences held by operators of railway assets.
  • Controlling the fair and efficient allocation of capacity of railway assets through the approval or direction of contracts for the use of track, stations, and light maintenance depots.
  • Acting as the appellate authority for certain classes of appeal of a regulatory or legal nature arising under the industry-wide network code.
  • Enforcement of railway competition law.
  • Independent health and safety regulation for the railway industry as parent body (since 2006) of HM Railway Inspectorate and for Personal Track Safety.
  • Approval of changes made to the National Routeing Guide and National Rail Conditions of Carriage.

ORR produces what is known as "the Blue Book", officially titled Railway Safety Principles and Guidance, to ensure those operating the rail network, or designing products related to it, comply with health and safety law.

Road

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  • Monitoring of Highways England's stewardship of England's strategic road network.

Statutory duties

In carrying out its functions, ORR must discharge its statutory duties, which are its formal objectives. These are laid down in section 4 of the Railways Act 1993, and include the protection of the interests of users and the promotion of competition, efficiency and economy in the provision of railway services.

Public law obligations

Like other public authorities, ORR must comply with the rules of administrative law, and is amenable to judicial review, so it must act lawfully, rationally, proportionately and in accordance with the relevant rules of procedure. Although operationally independent of central government as a non-ministerial government department, it is still covered by legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Management

The ORR is managed by a thirteen-member board which is appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport. Anna Walker succeeded Chris Bolt as chair of the Office of Rail Regulation on 5 July 2009 when Bolt's five-year term of office ended.[2] Anna Walker was herself succeeded on January 1st 2016 by Professor Stephen Glaister CBE. The chief executive officer is Richard Price, appointed in 2011 for a five year term. He is due to be succeeded in January 2016 on an interim basis by Joanna Whittington.

The ORR employs approximately 280 people, with offices in Glasgow, York, Manchester, London, Birmingham and Bristol.

Statistics

The ORR produces usage statistics for each station. These are generally released each December.

See also

References

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  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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