1 Welcome Safety Regulatory Function Handbook April 2006

2 Safety Regulatory Function Handbook The purpose of this document is to assist the CAA in establishing an Safety Regulatory Function to perform the safety regulation of services provided for the airspace, where the State is responsible for delivering such services, by describing the functions of Safety Regulation. Content of the Handbook Introduction (purpose, content, applicability, scope) Rationale and requirements for Safety Regulation Organisation of safety regulatory function

3 Safety Regulation Introduction: The safety management programme of the State includes Safety Regulation and the application of SMS by the service providers. Objective: The objective of the safety regulation of services is to improve safety levels by ensuring that the number and severity of Safety Occurrences do not increase – and where possible decrease – and that the safety performance in within the National Acceptable Levels of Safety.

4 Safety Regulation (cont.) Legal basis for safety regulation The authority for safety regulation derives from… Responsibilities Under the International Civil Aviation Convention, safety regulation of civil aviation, including the provision of services, is a national responsibility. In the State the Safety Regulation of service providers is vested in the Safety Regulator of the CAA.

5 Safety Regulation (cont.) Safety Policy As part of the National Civil Aviation Policy it is the policy of Safety Regulator to meet two safety objectives: Ensure that the ATM service-providers meet the standards and requirements set by CAA Ensure that the services delivered by the ATM service- providers are always at least at the National ATM Acceptable Level of Safety.

6 Safety Regulation (cont.) Safety Policy The CAA has safety as its highest priority for the regulation of civil aviation and in the provision of service under the responsibility of the State. The safety regulation of service providers for airspace and aerodromes is a vital function for achieving and maintaining high levels of safety in the delivery of services. The regulation will, as an ongoing safety oversight of service providers and services, be carried out impartially, independent of other interests and in a fair and transparent manner, based on published Safety Regulatory requirements.

7 Safety Regulation (cont.) Principles of safety regulation The Safety Regulator, who shall be independent of the service providers, shall monitor the safety performance of the latter; The Safety Regulator shall be functionally and organisationally separate from the planning, implementation and provision of the services; Safety Rulemaking shall be organisationally separated from Safety Oversight; The Safety Regulator shall set and monitor regulatory requirements, where required, to maintain the level of safety of the service; The safety regulatory requirements shall not prevent innovation, initiatives and/or be too prescriptive, and they shall be kept at a minimum practical level that is consistent with effective safety regulation.

8 Safety Regulatory Function The safety regulatory functions include: Establishing a national safety regulatory framework, including safety regulatory policies, objectives and directives; Defining applicable national safety regulatory requirements to meet the National Acceptable Level of Safety and those necessary to meet international commitments; Specifying relevant standards and practices that support or complement the requirements; Ensuring that acceptable levels of safety are met by service providers; Ensuring ongoing compliance with national safety regulatory objectives, requirements and standards.

9 Safety Regulatory Function Elements of Safety Regulation Rule-making; and Oversight Rule-making Definition Scope Oversight Definition Scope

10 Rule-making Introduction Safety Regulatory Rule-making includes the specification of… National Acceptable Level of Safety The Acceptable Level of Safety is… Objectives, requirements and Standards for service providers The safety regulation shall basically use the following: International: SARPS contained in ICAO Annex XXX and related ICAO documentation National: To be determined…

11 Rule-making Setting standards and requirements in practice When ICAO SARPS are used to establish standards and requirements, the CAA shall publish directives that contain detailed references to the SARPS to be applied. When (new) national standards and requirements are to be applied, the safety regulation shall establish a procedure for the initiation, verification and publishing of such documentation. The CAA shall establish a procedure for immediate rulemaking to be applied when circumstances demand it, for example in the case of incidents that prompt the need for such rule-making in the form of Safety Directives issued by CAA.

12 Rule-making Monitoring and reviewing published standards and requirements and directives In order to ensure that safety standards, requirements, directives and other safety regulation by the CAA are valid and correctly applied, the CAA shall monitor the published documentation and establish a procedure to be used for reviewing and, when necessary, amending the documentation.

13 Safety Oversight Introduction Safety Regulatory Oversight aims to monitor the safe provision of services and verify that objectives, requirements, directives and other safety regulation by the CAA are complied with by the service providers. Monitoring Safety Performance Monitoring safety performance is a continuous process exercised by the CAA through regular monitoring and assessments of safety levels against the National Acceptable Level of Safety. The means for monitoring is oversight and review of occurrence reporting systems, as well as utilisation of the contents of the reports and the outcome of safety regulatory audits. SMS, fully developed and applied by the service providers, are important sources for monitoring. Monitoring of safety performance supports all processes of the safety regulation.

14 Safety Oversight Verification of compliance with standards and requirements (providing objective evidence that) Service providers continuously comply with the objectives, requirements and standards issued by the CAA; Objectives, requirements, standards and other safety-related conditions identified in the proposed operation of new systems, including transition into operational use, or proposed changes to the operation of existing systems in the form of new developments or modifications are implemented; Service-providers implement Safety Directives issued by the CAA. Verification of compliance shall be conducted against a set of specified requirements.

15 Safety Oversight Process of verification of compliance Use of documented procedures to eliminate discrepancies in its application; Be supported by documentation specifically intended to provide CAA personnel with guidance in the performance of their functions; Base the verification of compliance on the use of safety regulatory audits conducted in accordance with the requirements of audits; Provide the CAA with the evidence needed to support further action in situations where safety regulatory requirements are not being complied with, or where successful compliance cannot be expected; Provide the service-provider concerned with an indication of the results of the safety oversight activity.

16 Safety Oversight Link between monitoring of safety performance and verification of compliance Using the results of the monitoring process referred to above, the CAA shall determine areas where the verification of compliance with standards and requirements is required as a matter of priority. In practical terms the monitoring process should feed information into the planning of safety regulatory audits identifying areas of safety concern.

17 Safety Regulatory Auditing The safety regulatory audits are the basic means by which objective evidence as regards to the compliance with specific requirements may be obtained and shall be applied in order to support the whole oversight process.

18 Safety Regulatory Auditing The safety regulatory audits shall: Provide the evidence of compliance with applicable safety regulatory standards, objectives, requirements and related arrangements by evaluating the need for improvement or corrective action; Verify by testing and/or examination whether prescriptive specifications required and previously published by the CAA have effectively been met; Be undertaken under the managerial responsibility and overall control of the CAA, independent of the internal auditing activities undertaken by service providers as part of their safety management arrangements; Be conducted by qualified auditors of the CAA; Provide the auditee with an opportunity to correct non- conformities and improve the safety of the area under consideration.

19 Safety Regulatory Auditing The scope of a specific audit does not necessarily have to involve a whole organisation and can be confined to a particular facility or area of functional relevance. Auditors shall only be responsible for identifying the need for corrective action. The auditee shall be responsible for determining and initiating the corrective actions needed to correct a non- conformity or to correct the cause of a non-conformity.

20 Safety Regulatory Auditing An audits observations and identified non- conformities shall be documented, supported by evidence and identified in terms of the objectives, requirements and standards or related arrangements against which the audit has been conducted. An audit report, including the details of the non- conformities, shall be forwarded to CAA and the service-provider involved. Corrective actions and subsequent follow-up audits shall be completed within a time period agreed by the CAA.

21 Safety Regulator - Organisation The purpose of this part of the document is to assist the CAA in establishing a Safety Regulatory Function to perform the safety regulation of services provided for the airspace where the State is responsible for delivering such services, by describing a proposal for the organisation of the Safety Regulatory Function. Pre-conditions for the organisation of the Safety Regulatory Function To fulfil the requirements for independence and objectivity, the placement of Safety Regulatory Function must reflect separation in relation to service providers and to other staff functions of the CAA.

22 Safety Regulator - Organisation The proposed organisation of the Safety Regulatory Function is as follows… Responsibilities of organisational elements: Head Rule-making Safety Oversight Analysis/Statistics