First, who should be responsible for the regulation of safety? It is not in dispute that a dedicated rail safety regulatory authority is needed. We have previously submitted that the Health and Safety Executive is suited to discharge this function, but subject to this important caveat, that any safety regulator will in the future need to be well resourced and powerful enough genuinely to challenge vested industrial interests and to stimulate change.

Whatever model the Inquiry recommends we believe the safety regulator in the future will require to pay far greater attention and weight to the need for passenger involvement and representation on issues of safety. To quote the words of Ms Bacon it is "desperately important" to involve the travelling public in the formulation of safety performance and outcome. It is likely to have a positive benefit as Ms Hutton agreed, and she too spoke of a need for a better mechanism to "wrap around" the safety regulator to ensure that the public voice is heard on safety issues.

We therefore urge the Inquiry to support our proposals for a new Rail Safety Advisory Commission at a high level in the industry to give advice to both the HSE and the SRA.

Secondly, we have drawn attention to the need for a clearer demarcation of the respective roles of the three industry regulators, the HSE, the ORR and the SRA. We consider that in so far as the ORR and the SRA are required to have regard to matters of safety, they should do so in the context of and as a back up to the discharge of their respective primary task, and not treat their statutory duties to take safety into account as a free standing right to enable each of them to explore generally into the safety of the network.

Thirdly, we turn to the structure and the management of the industry itself. We believe a key issue it to find ways of better collaboration across the industry. We submit that there is a strong case for the establishment of a standards body at the centre to reach across to all industry parties along the lines we and the ORR have advocated. We note that our proposals for an industry based rail standard authority now appear to have support in the closing written submissions of the HSE, the Rail Users' Committees and the Unions. We believe that such a body should be placed on a statutory basis to make it properly accountable and seen to be independent from any single duty holder.

Finally, much has been heard in the Inquiry about the need to achieve a better safety culture. Less has been said about the morale of the industry. The industry has taken a knock. The terrible crashes have played their part in denting the confidence of the industry and the passengers. The passengers want a rail industry that has confidence in itself. This Inquiry is an opportunity to restore that confidence. To that end we have sought to put forward constructive proposals on how we believe safety can better be managed.