Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003

The Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 (c 10) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003^[1]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision about railways, including tramways; to make provision about transport safety; and for connected purposes.
Citation	2003 c 20
Dates
Royal assent	10 July 2003
Other legislation
Amended by	Railways Act 2005, Police and Justice Act 2006, Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, Deregulation Act 2015, Policing and Crime Act 2017
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

Purposes of the Act

The purposes of the Act^[2] include:-

• the creation of the Rail Accident Investigation Branch
• the replacement of the Rail Regulator by a Regulatory Board, the Office of Rail Regulation.
• the creation of a police authority for the British Transport Police (BTP)
• allowing the BTP to recruit police community support officers (PCSO) under the Police Reform Act 2002 which previously only extended to territorial police forces
• giving the BTP "statutory authority over the railway"
• the introduction of alcohol limits on the crews of water-borne vessels and aircraft in line with those already existing for railway staff
• other miscellaneous matters affecting railway, air and road transport

Extent

The Act extends to the whole United Kingdom but with exceptions for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Repeals and amendments

Schedule 8^[3] makes a number of amendments to other Acts but does not repeal any Acts entirely.

See also

• Railways Act