Safety Critical Roles within the Network Management Control Centre
Request ID: FOI-0634-2122 Date published: 20 July 2021
You asked
I wish to request a list of all job roles/titles within TFL Surface Transport's Network Management Control Centre (NMCC) that are deemed as being 'safety critical' roles by TFL or such status being imposed as being safety critical on such roles by TFL's regulatory body known as the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) - or any other regulatory body.
I wish to request a list of all job roles/titles within TFL Surface Transport's Network Management Control Centre (NMCC) that are deemed as being 'operational' roles by TFL or this status being imposed as being safety critical on them by TFL's regulatory body (or indeed any other body) such as the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
Please identify if the following roles within TFL Surface Transport Network Management Control Centre are deemed as being either 'safety critical', 'operational', 'both' or 'neither':
*NMCC Incident Response Coordinator
*NMCC Network Operations Coordinator
*NMCC Operations Manager
*NMCC Control Centre Duty Manager
*NMCC People Manager
*NMCC Events Coordinator
*NMCC Events Manager
*NMCC Events Lead
*NMCC Partnership Advisor
*NMCC People Manager Lead
*NMCC Operations Lead
*NMCC Information Coordinator
*NMCC Information Manager
*NMCC Information Lead
*Head of Control Centre Operations
Furthermore, please provide the minimum medical standard that have to be achieved by any individual employee for any of the safety critical or operational roles TFL has identified above.
Please list the periodicity for competency checks for each role identified as being Safety Critical or Operational roles (which TFL has identified above) and the methodology for such checks and how this information is recorded and verified.
Please provide the minimum staffing level numbers that are required to operate the following areas of the TFL Surface Transport NMCC control room - please state if this number is a legal/legislative requirement, a business requirement, or both:
*Incident Response Tunnels (staffed by incident response coordinators) *Incident Response Bus Radios (staffed by incident response coordinators) *Network Operations Bus Diversions (staff by Network Operations Coordinators) *Network Operations Streets/Traffic Lights (staffed by Network Operations Coordinators) *NMCC Operations Manager *NMCC Control Centre Duty Manager
Please provide information as to what action is taken by TFL in realtime should the above minimum staffing levels above not be achieved and there being no staff available to work?
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-0634-2122
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 26 June 2021, asking about safety critical roles in NMCC.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold the information you require. You asked:
I wish to request a list of all job roles/titles within TFL Surface Transport's Network Management Control Centre (NMCC) that are deemed as being 'safety critical' roles by TFL or such status being imposed as being safety critical on such roles by TFL's regulatory body known as the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) - or any other regulatory body.
There are no safety critical roles in NMCC. There are no tasks undertaken by NMCC that are deemed safety critical.
I wish to request a list of all job roles/titles within TFL Surface Transport's Network Management Control Centre (NMCC) that are deemed as being 'operational' roles by TFL or this status being imposed as being safety critical on them by TFL's regulatory body (or indeed any other body) such as the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).
No roles are operational in the NMCC.
Please identify if the following roles within TFL Surface Transport Network Management Control Centre are deemed as being either 'safety critical', 'operational', 'both' or 'neither': *NMCC Incident Response Coordinator *NMCC Network Operations Coordinator *NMCC Operations Manager *NMCC Control Centre Duty Manager *NMCC People Manager *NMCC Events Coordinator *NMCC Events Manager *NMCC Events Lead *NMCC Partnership Advisor *NMCC People Manager Lead *NMCC Operations Lead *NMCC Information Coordinator *NMCC Information Manager *NMCC Information Lead *Head of Control Centre Operations
As above, there are no roles deemed safety critical or operational.
Furthermore, please provide the minimum medical standard that have to be achieved by any individual employee for any of the safety critical or operational roles TFL has identified above.
As above, there are no operational or safety critical roles and none of the above roles require a medical standard. Occupational Health advice will be sought as and when medical conditions necessitate review, fitness to work or reasonable adjustments required to undertake certain duties and fully support an individual.
Please list the periodicity for competency checks for each role identified as being Safety Critical or Operational roles (which TFL has identified above) and the methodology for such checks and how this information is recorded and verified.
As above, there are no operational or safety critical roles. Training and assessments are undertaken to deem an individual’s competency but these are not related to safety criticality.
Please provide the minimum staffing level numbers that are required to operate the following areas of the TFL Surface Transport NMCC control room - please state if this number is a legal/legislative requirement, a business requirement, or both: *Incident Response Tunnels (staffed by incident response coordinators) *Incident Response Bus Radios (staffed by incident response coordinators) *Network Operations Bus Diversions (staff by Network Operations Coordinators) *Network Operations Streets/Traffic Lights (staffed by Network Operations Coordinators) *NMCC Operations Manager *NMCC Control Centre Duty Manager
There are no minimum staffing levels for any of the mentioned areas as there is no legislative/legal requirement. We have optimised staffing levels we aim to achieve through our resourcing which is dependent on workload (e.g. events, demos, incidents, etc.) where we will move skills sets to accommodate for demand, thus the business requirement is dynamic and constantly changing.
Please provide information as to what action is taken by TFL in realtime should the above minimum staffing levels above not be achieved and there being no staff available to work?
We have several mitigations in place should we not have any staff available at work. However this would be dependent on what area of NMCC it is and the list is non-exhaustive. We have an operational plan to reduce certain activities in the NMCC as and when needed, which we’ve previously made use of during the COVID pandemic, for example code blue restrictions on bus radios, reducing communications (e.g. red tops) externally and bus operators supporting diversion implementation.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely
Eva Hextall FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
