The process will depend on how big the change is, and whether your safety case already shows you can identify, control and manage the associated safety risks.
There are three levels of change:
A change notification is a change your organisation plans to make that involves a risk to safety, but doesn’t require a safety case variation because managing the risks involved with the change are covered in your approved safety case.
You can let us know of the change and show how you’re managing it with the relevant sections of your safety case by submitting a Change notification form.
Let us know before you make the change. There may be potential compliance issues if you let us know after the change is made. If you’d like to discuss it beforehand, call your licence manager.
Change notification form [PDF, 219 KB]
A safety case variation is a variation to your approved safety case. It’s normally related to a change or renewal that affects the safety of your rail activities and isn’t covered in your current approved safety case. There may also be situations where a change or renewal may be small but could impact on several sections of your safety case.
When your organisation is planning this kind of change, you should get in touch with your licence manager as soon as possible. They can advise you on the content updates you’ll need for your safety case, and help you through the process for submitting an Application for a safety case variation form. You’ll need to provide copies of your change process, risk management process and any risk assessments done for the change.
Application for a safety case variation form [PDF, 236 KB]
Risk management(external link)
An approval process must be completed before the change can be done. This application may take up to 40 working days for consideration and more information may be needed.
You might also need to replace your organisation’s safety case – it may be you have a new approach to your safety case or many changes to be made. It doesn’t have to be started by changes in your activities or organisation - it could be because of findings from an assessment.
If you’re planning to do this, contact your licence manager as soon as possible. The approval process is the same as when a new safety case is assessed as part of a licence application.
When you submit an Application for a safety case replacement form, you’ll need to provide copies of any change process, risk management process or risk assessment associated with the new safety case. This application may take up to 40 working days for consideration and more information may be needed. The changes must be approved before you put them in place.
Application for a safety case replacement form [PDF, 240 KB]
