Jeremy Hotchkiss

Deputy Director
Department for Transport
Great Minster House
Tom Lee 33 Horseferry Road
Director of Standards SW1P 4DR
RSSB [email protected]
The Helicon, One South Place
London Web Site: www.dft.gov.uk
EC2M 2RB
4th September 2023
By email: [email protected]

Dear Tom,

GOVERNMENT POLICY PRINCIPLES FOR THE REVISION OF NATIONAL

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION NOTICES

I wrote to you in December 2022 to confirm the role of the Rail Safety and Standards
Board (RSSB) in the development of National Technical Specification Notices (NTSNs),
which replaced the EU’s Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) as mandatory
rail technical standards for Great Britain (GB). As you are aware, the Government has
always seen freedom over these standards as a key Brexit opportunity for Britain’s
railways. Ministers have agreed a set of policy principles to direct the progressive
development of NTSNs in a way that best seizes these opportunities. I am now writing to
confirm the Department for Transport’s expectations for how these principles should be
applied in the 2023/24 NTSN revision.

As you know well, the Brexit amendments to the Railways (Interoperability) Regulations
2011 gave the Secretary of State for Transport statutory responsibilities for setting
standards for the design, construction, placing in service, upgrading, renewal, operation
and maintenance of the parts of the GB rail system through NTSNs. The Secretary of
State also has statutory responsibilities for making decisions on the application of these
standards to individual rail infrastructure and vehicle projects. The Department for
Transport is responsible for funding, either directly or indirectly, many of these rail
projects and setting the overall strategic policy direction for rail. Given the importance of
NTSNs in supporting cost-effective delivery of rail projects and fulfilling the Government’s
wider rail policy ambitions, the Department must be confident that the standards it
mandates for rail serve its policy interests and support a safe, customer-focused, efficient,
accessible, and financially sustainable railway. I know that RSSB fully understands the
importance of this.
Brexit has significantly enhanced our ability to meet these ambitions by ending the legal
requirement to apply TSIs in Britain. TSIs are fundamentally designed to support
integration of the EU’s railways and fulfil requirements of an EU regulatory framework.
This broad geographic scope means that official analysis of their impacts and benefits is
not directly focused on the GB railway, which has unique circumstances needing more
robust consideration. Additionally, on occasions the UK Government and rail stakeholders
have not always agreed with majority European views on the rules that should become
mandatory through TSIs, but regardless have had to implement them on the GB railway.

We recognise that there will be significant benefits from continued alignment with many
TSI requirements. This is most likely to be in the national interest where alignment
reduces manufacturing costs and supports our critical international rail traffic (including
within the UK half of the Channel Tunnel). Nonetheless, all decisions on continued
alignment with or divergence from TSIs will need to be based on the rigorous application
of principles that reflect the objectives and needs of the GB railway rather than
acceptance of new TSI requirements by default.

The 2023/24 NTSN revision, which was prompted by an update of the TSIs on which the
current NTSN content is based, is the first major opportunity to seize many of these Brexit
benefits for the GB railway. As stated in the Working Agreement between the RSSB
Standards Management Policy and Strategy team and the DfT Rail Safety and Standards
team, there is a limited scope to what is possible in this first revision. We have agreed
that this revision will focus on consideration of changes to corresponding TSIs and
proposals for other specific requirements already identified by the sector or Government
as currently causing issues. We recognise that this alone is a substantial undertaking and
that there is limited capacity to conduct a more comprehensive review of existing
requirements at this stage. Nonetheless, it is Ministers’ expectation that, as a result of this
first major revision, we will have a set of NTSNs that:

• Reflect the best interests of the GB railway (including those of passengers, freight
users, taxpayers, infrastructure managers, operators and the competitiveness of
the UK rail supply chain);

• Are, where possible, less burdensome than TSIs, while maintaining high levels of
safety, cost-effectiveness and performance through greater technical compatibility,
and protecting key international passenger and freight routes;

• Align with UK Government policy for an efficient, reliable, safe, customer focused,
financially and environmentally sustainable railway;

• And have strong buy-in from those who will be required to apply the NTSNs and
bear any associated costs.
The role of RSSB in running a consultation on new NTSN requirements and facilitating
industry consensus will be crucial to achieving these outcomes. The industry
recommendation and consultation findings that RSSB will submit to the Department will
form the main substance of our considerations on what to publish and mandate through
new versions of the NTSNs in 2024. In making these decisions, we will want to take a
comprehensive view (considering interests of those who use and fund the railway in
addition to those of the rail industry) and will apply policy principles agreed by our
Ministers in the following way:

• Strictly necessary to be mandatory: If it is strictly necessary for achieving the

Essential Requirements of the Interoperability Regulations on the GB railway, then
we should mandate new or changed requirements. If not strictly necessary, we
should either not include them in the NTSN or allow more flexibility.
• Outcome focus: Where it is appropriate to allow more flexibility in the NTSN, we
should seek opportunities to focus requirements on the outcome to be achieved.
• GB-focused analysis: Proposals to adopt new or changed requirements should
be supported by proportionate analysis of impacts (including costs) and benefits to
the GB railway (which may need to be qualitative) and Government rail policy
objectives. If there is no obvious net benefit, there would need to be a compelling
reason why it is in the interest of the GB Railway for them to become mandatory.
• Inclusive approach: Proposals for NTSN requirements should be tested with
those who will be required to apply them and bear the costs of doing so. There
would need to be compelling reasons for mandating them if they are not supported
by those who will apply and pay for them.

The Department values RSSB’s independence as an industry body and recognises that
its recommendations to the Department need to reflect a broad industry consensus.
However, we expect RSSB to be cognisant of these policy principles and the wider rail
policy context when developing proposals for the NTSN consultation and when facilitating
industry agreement to the recommendations it makes to the Department. This will
minimise the need for us to make significant changes to the text industry recommends or
to conduct further consultation. That will in turn facilitate timely publication of the final
NTSNs, which we recognise is a high priority for the rail industry.

With each successive revision, we expect RSSB to look increasingly for opportunities to
remove or amend existing requirements that are unnecessary or add disproportionate
burdens to the GB railway. We also expect RSSB to be progressively more proactive in
proposing how NTSNs can be developed further so that they achieve their intended
outcomes without stifling innovation or adding cost. Two important indicators of success
here will be greater industry-wide acceptance of NTSNs (including, for example, among
Network Rail’s regions and routes) and a reduction in the number of requests for
exemptions. The main advantage of taking back control of GB rail standards is the
assurance that the rules we mandate will genuinely benefit the GB railway, and it is
important that RSSB has the capability needed to provide this.
I cannot overstate the significance of this first major revision of the NTSNs post-Brexit and
the trust that the Department has in RSSB to support Government effectively in this. I am
confident that this process will serve as an example of successful Government-industry
collaboration and will also lead to greater industry engagement with, and investment, in
rail standards at every level.

Yours sincerely,

Jeremy Hotchkiss
Deputy Director, Rail Industry Standards and Capability

Copies to: Mark Phillips, Chief Executive Officer, RSSB

Ian Prosser, Chief Inspector of Railways and Director of Rail Safety, ORR