About the job

Job summary

The Railway Safety Directorate (RSD) works to ensure duty-holders in the railway industry manage health and safety risks effectively and comply with their statutory duties. Britain has one of the safest railways in Europe – for passengers and for workers. We regulate health and safety for the entire mainline rail network in Britain.

Job description

This is a senior, high profile, health and safety regulatory role with responsibility for the Channel Tunnel as the Head of the UK Delegation to the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority (CTSA), and GB’s non-mainline railways which includes Transport for London, circa 220 individual Heritage Railways, seven Tram systems, and our high-gearing risk reduction role in promoting effective Safety by Design.

You’ll lead a team of around 30 professional colleagues (including warranted inspectors and their assistants) and be accountable for delivering a diverse range of regulatory interventions such as investigation, inspection and statutory permissioning activities to deliver our strategic objective of a safe railway.

A key requirement of the role will be to build and maintain strong relationships with our French regulatory colleagues and represent ORR and the CTSA at a senior level internationally.

Person specification

For key responsibilities please see the attached job description.

Benefits

Details of our employee benefits can be found in the attached Candidate Information Pack.

Find out what our colleagues have to say about their ORR careers Our people Office of Rail and Road (orr.gov.uk).

Things you need to know

Selection process details

For information on the selection process, please see the attached Candidate Information Pack and Job Description.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.