What is an Assessment Body?

The European Commission Common Safety Method on Risk Evaluation and Assessment Regulation 402/2013 (CSM RA), as amended by Regulation 2015/1136, provides a legal obligation and mandatory framework for evaluating and assessing the risk associated with significant engineering, operational and organisational changes to the EU and UK mainline railways.

CSM RA was introduced to harmonise the process for managing hazards in EU member states and to make it easier for assessments to be recognised between national authorities.

The regulation introduces the idea of a Proposer, which is the entity responsible for the change. This could be any organisation making a change to the railway, such as: Infrastructure managers; Railway undertakings; Entities in Charge of Maintenance; manufacturers or any APIS applicant (Authorisation for Placing into Service).

An Assessment Body (AsBo) is an independent party appointed to assess the application of the hazard management safety risk process applied during a project. The assessment will determine the project's compliance with the CSM RA regulations. The final output is a Safety Assessment Report.

What are the benefits of appointing an accredited Ricardo Certification company as your AsBo provider?

Ricardo Certification BV, Ricardo Certification Iberia S.L. and Ricardo Certification Limited are accredited as an Inspection Body under ISO/IEC 17020 and can offer Assessment Body services.

These bodies offer clients extensive knowledge of the CSM RA process, with experts who bring many years' experience of safety assurance and risk assessment work, and are recognised in the EU and in the UK.

Our approach is not to perform assessments as a tick-box exercise. Nor do we view CSM RA as a single event.

Rather, we see it as an iterative process of constant re-evaluation of whether hazards have been identified and appropriately managed.

We bring an independent, proactive and pragmatic approach to each assignment we undertake.

And by maintaining open and constructive dialogue throughout the process, we can help remove unnecessary paperwork and reduce the risks of delays and cost overruns.

For example, our experts will help you recognise where the work that you have already done has the applicability to satisfy the assurance process and help minimise the administrative burden.