Guidelines: Improving health and safety working with contractors on the railway

This guidance is intended to be:

1. A useful tool to assist companies in complying with relevant health and safety legislation
2. Applicable to contractual relationships within the rail industry

• Flexible enough to be applied to internal as well as external contractors
• Equally applicable to sub- contractors (via main contractors)

3. Based on general principles rather than focusing on specific types of contracts
4. A signpost document for organisations including where to find good practices.

The guidance sets out the European legislative context followed by an overview of the contract life cycle. Each element of the life cycle is then considered in detail outlining why it is important for health and safety performance, key principles to consider, issues that may arise and how to monitor and measure each element.