What is an Independent Safety Assessment?
An Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) is a service undertaken by a third party to confirm that a product, system or entire railway meets recognised industry, legal and regulatory standards that relate to safety.
It can encompass the safety assessment and audit of any design, manufacture, installation, testing and safety documentation for the engineering systems, and extend to any procedures, preparations and safety policies in place ahead of a railway's entry into service or a product's release to the market.
What are the benefits of Independent Safety Assessments?
Appointing an ISA demonstrates that your business is committed to operating in a safe, sustainable and efficient manner.
By proving that the safety aspects of your products or systems have been subjected to rigorous and continual oversight by a third party with no financial interest or connection to the project, you are sending a reassuring message of transparency to passengers, regulators, investors and employees.
Ricardo Certification Limited, Ricardo Certification Iberia S.L and Ricardo Beijing Company Ltd offer an ISA service under their respective accreditations to ISO/IEC 17020 as an Inspection Body. Further, Ricardo Rail Australia is an Authorised Engineering Organisation, which can provide ISA services for Transport for New South Wales in Australia.
Ricardo Certification Limited is accredited by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) as an Inspection Body under ISO/IEC 17020 to offer ISA services in Canada.
A rail industry first
In 2016 Ricardo Certification Limited became the first independent assurance provider in the rail market to offer a UKAS accredited ISA service. To earn this accreditation, the defined ISA processes and structures were assessed against BS EN ISO/IEC 17020. To earn this accreditation the defined ISA procedures were assessed against the competence, independence and process requirements of BS EN ISO/IEC 17020.
From initial design to commissioning
Ricardo Certification’s companies have worked on the assessment of new products and systems, changes to complex products, overseen updates to existing systems, and supported new railways from initial design to commissioning.
The ISA service applies the CENELEC EN50126 and EN50129 standards as the basic criteria against which the safety engineering of railway products and systems are assessed. They define a systems and safety engineering lifecycle and the contents of safety cases for railway safety systems.
These standards call up a range of other relevant standards such as CENELEC EN50128 and EN50657 for software, CENELEC EN50121 for electromagnetic compatibility, and CENELEC EN50159 for communications.
However, ISA work can also be performed against other relevant standards, such as IEC 61508. We can also apply standards directly relevant to electrical and mechanical systems and civil structures for specific products and railway sub-systems.
Get in touch with our experts
Find out more about how we can help you by contacting our service leader, Stephen Clarke (see panel) or by email: [email protected]