Catalogue description British Railways Board: Safety Directorate and Predecessors: Records

Broadly speaking, this series is divided into two sections - registered files and papers in AN 208/1-208 and committee records in AN 208/209-296 - with each section arranged in roughly chronological order. However, there are exceptions to this division: for example, BRB Safety Panel records are to be found at AN 208/73-76, 81, 83, 90, 91, 96, 99, 101, 103, 106, 107, 117, 119, 128 and 270-291.

Until the late 1980s there was no clear hierarchy at Board level for reviewing safety. Generally safety matters were dealt with at regional level, or through the Director of Operations. In 1988 a small Safety Directorate was created and a Director of Safety appointed. In response to the accidents at Clapham, Bellgrove and Purley in 1988 and 1989 the Safety Directorate was given corporate responsibility for safety on the railway including fire safety, health and safety at work and safety auditing. New committees such as the Safety Management Group and the Safety Panel (which authorised expenditure on safety related initiatives) were constituted. From 1991 an annual Safety Plan was published setting out objectives for safety performance and monitoring. In April 1994 responsibility for safety on the rail network passed to Railtrack leaving the Board to deal with safety issues within its remaining companies.