Guidance

Accident Investigation Chiefs’ Council (AICC) Strategic Plan 2021

Published 15 April 2019

1. Introduction

The Accident Investigation Chiefs’ Council (AICC) is tasked by the Department for Transport with:

• improving the Accident Investigation Branches’ (AIBs) effectiveness, efficiency and resilience through collaboration
• establishing common positions on issues of mutual interest, including the development of joint Memoranda of Understanding and other collaborative working arrangements
• maintaining an overview of quality, the timeliness of outputs and value for money
• actively promoting the AIBs as centres of excellence.

2. Aim

This Strategic Plan for 2021 – 2026 documents the AICC’s core mission and vision for the next five years, and a set of values that are common to each of the three branches. It defines high-level objectives, the associated tri-branch activities and governance arrangements used to deliver the mission.

This strategic plan has been established to provide a clear focus for AICC activities. It will help inform staff and external stakeholders about the direction of travel and will assist the Department for Transport to hold the AICC to account for the effectiveness of cooperation between the AIBs.

3. AICC’s core mission

The AICC’s mission is to improve air, marine and rail safety by maximising the collective effectiveness of the AIBs.

4. AICC’s vision

The AICC’s vision is for the United Kingdom to maintain a world-class and progressive independent air, marine, rail and space accident investigation capability that meets the needs of the public, industry and government to actively improve transport safety by identifying and promulgating the safety lessons to be learned from transport accidents.

The AICCs core values complement the Civil Service values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality and are Co-operation and Mutual respect.

5. Strategic objectives

The AICC intends to make improvements in the following six areas:

5.1 Operations

Strengthen mutual operational support and cross-learning:

Identify, implement and share best practice and improve mutual support in, for example, the areas of: human factors investigation; electronic data recovery and analysis; and family liaison. Formulate a tri-Branch strategy for the investigation of ever-increasing software-based systems. Adapt to changes in our industries, government and societal expectations and review of what we have learnt from the changes during the COVID emergency. Review the benefits of adopting a formal Quality Management System.

5.2 Legal and regulatory

Use learning from each other to improve our regulations and align where appropriate:

Continue the review of enabling regulations and identify ways of better aligning our regulations and adopt common best practices where it makes sense to do so.

5.3 Administrative support

Strengthening our resilience in the administration support functions by mutual support and cross-learning:

Improve the resilience of the administrative support functions by aligning processes and tools, where possible, to enable mutual support. Review the costs and benefits of closer integration of the Branches’ IT systems and IT support, with the aim of rationalising where benefits can be accrued, and work towards greater alignment in areas of general policy.

5.4 Stakeholders

Develop and maintain strong working relationships with our external stakeholders:

Ensuring that all our tri-branch Memorandums of Understanding reflect our current needs and expectations, and those of our stakeholders. Establish improved and positive working relationships with, among others, Coroners in England and Wales, the Crown Office of the Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland, ORR, CAA, MCA. Maintain a competent and independent external communications capability.

5.5 People

Use cross-learning to improve the way we manage our teams:

Share ways of promoting diversity and inclusion across the AIBs and wellbeing of everybody in the workplace. Develop and deliver joint training where there is shared need (e.g. management development) and share experience, good practice and provide mutual support in the field of health and safety (including cross-auditing). Adopt best practice and provide mutual support to promote staff health, safety, wellbeing, ways of working, recruitment and training.

5.6 Technology

Ensuring the AIBs are positioned and equipped to investigate where new or novel technologies emerge in the transportation system:

Establish a tri-branch mechanism for identifying and managing the impact of emerging technologies to improve the three Branches’ ability to proactively adapt to technological changes in the industries, with the aim of developing strategies for the investigation of such technologies, including autonomous vehicles and those utilising artificial intelligence.

To deliver these high-level objectives, several tasks have been identified that will be shared between and taken forward by AIB staff, drawing on departmental and industry expertise where appropriate. The lead responsibility for progressing each work-stream will be delegated to AIB staff, with management oversight exercised by the AICC.

5.7 Reporting of Progress

In support of these strategic objectives, the AAIC has developed a programme of specific activities and tasks. Progress of these activities and tasks will be monitored by the Head of Joint Policy and reviewed by the AICC.

In addition to an ongoing review of the allocated tasks, AICC will review the entire Strategic Framework annually. Performance against the high-level objectives will also be reported to the Board of Accident Investigation Branches (BAIB) on an annual basis.

5.8 Commitment

The three Chief Inspectors are the Senior Responsible Owners of this plan. As part of the AICC, they will implement the strategy described.