Improve Railtrack procedures for implementing and monitoring accepted recommendations with clear accountability

Railtrack procedures, and the actions of management to enforce them, should be directed to ensuring that: (i) a recommendation which is accepted is implemented according to a defined timescale; (ii) the person to whom a recommendation is allocated for implementation is required to report periodically the action which has been taken, the state of progress and the reasons for any delay; (iii) the monitoring of the implementation of a recommendation is assigned to an identified individual whose duties are clearly defined, whether by job description, formal instruction, or training or a combination of these methods; (iv) the person to whom monitoring is assigned is required to ensure that the recommendation is implemented according to a defined timescale; (v) a recommendation should not be abandoned unless, exceptionally, this is shown to be fully justified to the person to whom monitoring is assigned; (vi) any management system to which the recommendation relates is altered to align it with the recommendation; (vii) the effectiveness of a recommendation is audited after its implementation; (viii) full records are kept of all recommendations and their state of progress; and (ix) there is a system for the central tracking of recommendations which are directed to Railtrack Line and those which, either immediately or thereafter, are directed to one or more of the Zones (para 7.106).