Provision of Services of an Independant Safety Auditor (ISA).

Descriptions

Safety consultancy services. Expression of interest.The FAST, as a multi-platform Project Team (PT) requires an ISA to assess parts of the safety cases for the aircraft of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), Tornado, and Typhoon fleets. The scope of the task varies for each aircraft type according to its procurement and in-service support arrangements but the ISA's key role will be to provide assurance to FAST and its stakeholders that the platforms are acceptably safe from an airworthiness perspective.The ISA role is defined in Def Stan 00-56 Part 1 as: ‘…an individual or team, from an independent organisation, that undertakes audits and other assessment activities to provide assurance that safety activities comply with planned arrangements, are implemented effectively and are suitable to achieve objectives; and whether related outputs are correct, valid and fit for purpose...'The ISA is to provide assistance to the BBMF ac, Tornado and Typhoon Safety Managers in discharging their responsibilities for monitoring effective safety management of the FAST PT and its contractors. The ISA will provide assurance and guidance on safety management issues by providing an expert, professional opinion without vulnerability to commercial, project or other pressure; however, the opinion offered should consider the reality of competing resources, but should not suppress/obscure the ‘purist' opinion. The role will be fulfilled by the implementation of an agreed Safety Audit Plan that complements project plans and other regulatory Audits to ensure a timely safety input into projects.In the context of this Bulletin the terms independent, safety audit and safety advice are defined as:a. Independent. The ISA must be independent in respect to being able to provide an expert, professional opinion without pressure to modify their opinion. The appointed ISA must be sufficiently independent that there is nothing that might affect or call into question their ability to carry out impartial assessment or audit activities or to make impartial judgements regarding safety. To achieve this, the appointed ISA is required to declare in the ISA Audit Plan its level of independence from the organisations or any parts of its parent organisation already supporting FAST in any capacity. The requirement applies to all ISA team members, including any sub-contracted activities.b. Safety Audit. A systematic and independent examination to determine whether safety activities comply with planned arrangements, are implemented effectively; are suitable to achieve objectives; and whether related outputs are correct, valid and fit for purpose. It consists of all activities that enable an expert, professional, independent opinion to be reached on the safety of the system.c. Safety Support. Should take the form of general guidance on the acceptability of a proposed safety argument that facilitates decision-making. In order to maintain independence, the ISA cannot recommend a specific approach, or contribute directly to the safety argument. Guidance that would be given to any broadly similar project and might cover the selection of suitable analysis techniques, the structure of safety arguments and the making of tolerability claims would be deemed general guidance.The scope of the work is defined below but may include examination of the safety management arrangements and records of the following parties involved with the Typhoon project:The Strategic Transport and Air-to-Air Refuelling (STAAR) PT and Hercules and TriStar PT (HTPT) for their interface with FAST Tornado and Typhoon with respect to airborne refuelling activities and the Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (SHORAD) and Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile ((BVRAAM) PTs amongst others who interface with FAST through the provision of munitions. There will also be a requirement to liaise with Industry and RAF bases details of which will be provided within the ITT.The ISA should be able to demonstrate competence in safety audit skills as applied in the air domain, including knowledge of relevant safety policy and legislation.The performance of this Contract will be subject to monitoring and management through key performance indicators.Any further information required should be submitted to the Commercial contact listed above by 14:00hrs on Wednesday 09th October 2013. After which date no further questions will be taken.Deadline for Interests to be submitted either by e mail or hard copy to the Commercial contact listed above is 12:00hrs on Friday 25th October 2013