About CIHT CIHT Governance President's Blog Diversity & Inclusion CIHT Foundation

Define Audit Procedures

Local Authority procedures
Possible relaxations
Formal Adoption of Relaxation

Local Authority procedures

For authorities that wish to develop their own road safety audit policy and procedure, the following hyperlinks will take them to some examples of other national and local standards.

NRA

CIHT and SoRSA recommend that all local authorities adopt a local standard that is appropriate for them.  It should be practical and achievable, one that they can afford in terms of resources. We recommend the use of the national standard, (GG119 for UK), in its entirety but we recognise that its implementation for every local authority highway scheme may not be affordable where public funding is limited.

In order to set up and adopt a road safety audit procedure a local authority should decide which of the National standard procedures can be altered to suit their own needs. The advice contained in these guidelines can be used as a basis for such local standards and CIHT SoRSA is able to provide additional advice or contacts for authorities who need further assistance.

Please contact e: sorsa@ciht.org.uk for further info

Possible relaxations

For example, instead of insisting on two experienced and highly trained auditors for every audit, one trained and experienced auditor, in conjunction with an experienced designer, may suffice for certain schemes.

In the UK the following exceptions from the national standard have been used and are recommended for consideration in locally adopted audit procedures:-

  • an audit team consisting of one trained/experienced auditor with a trained but as yet inexperienced auditor
  • one trained/experienced auditor with an experienced designer (who is independent of the design team for the scheme being audited)
  • a single, trained and experienced auditor (only recommended for small value, simple, minor improvements)
  • at the initial design stage a site visit may not be required for minor schemes if current, internet street view information is available (only recommended for small value, simple, minor improvements)
  • a night time site visit may not be required if, during the daytime, site visit the auditors are satisfied that the street lighting arrangement is satisfactory and permission is sought from the Scheme Manager to omit the night visit
  • the post-construction (stage 3) audit without representatives from the Police and maintenance authority
  • the audit report presented using a spreadsheet format so that similar problems and recommendations can be grouped for convenience
  • each problem and recommendation risk assessed using a suitable risk table
  • only the audit team leader required to sign the audit report
  • the audit report sent as a final version to the Scheme Manager rather than as a draft version
  • the audit team allowed to consult directly with the design team during the audit rather than reporting through the Scheme Manager
  • the Scheme Manager only sent the final version of the report once the audit team and design team have agreed on modifications required as a result of the audit, the Scheme Manager only then having to consider any outstanding problems and recommendations
  • an Exception Report is not required so long as the Scheme Manager records on file the reasons for not accepting the auditor’s recommendations.

Formal Adoption of Relaxations

Any exceptions or omissions from the National standard should be appropriately risk assessed by the authority before being written into their safety audit procedures.  CIHT and SoRSA also recommend that a local procedure for road safety audit should be formally documented and adopted by the authority at a meeting of the full Cabinet or Committee prior to its use.  It should also be reviewed periodically in the light of any issues arising as a result of its use, perhaps annually or bi-annually.

Click to move onto the next step...

Appointing/Define Scheme Manager

Share
Bookmark