Transport for Wales Board Meeting Minutes - 21 April 2022

21 April 2022

09:30 - 17:00

Venue - Llys Cadwyn and online

 

Scott Waddington (Chair); Alun Bowen, Heather Clash, Vernon Everitt, Sarah Howells, Nicola Kemmery, Alison Noon-Jones, and James Price.

In attendance: Leyton Powell (item 2); and Jeremy Morgan.

Operational update session (Part B): Neil James, David O’Leary, Lee Robinson, and Dan Tipper.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

 

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting

 

1a. Apologies for absence

None.

 

1b. Notice of quorum

A quorum being present, the Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and declared the meeting open.

 

1c. Declarations of interest

None declared.

 

1d. Minutes and actions of previous meeting

The minutes of the TfW Board meeting 24 March 2022 were approved as a true and accurate record. The actions log was noted.

 

1e. Safety moment

The Board discussed further lessons to be learnt around personal responsibility and accountability in light of the Croydon Tram incident.

 

1f. Customer moment

The Board reflected on recent good revenue protection work on a mainline service involving the conductor and BTP. The response was based on the conductor being fully observant of the situation in the carriage and the people alighting on and off the train.

 

2. Safety performance

Leyton Powell joined the meeting.

There was good performance across TfW Group indicators along with a successful start to the visible felt leadership programme. The Board noted that mental health disorders are the highest subject of occupational health referrals.

TfW Rail’s 2022-23 Safety Plan has been developed in collaboration with TfW Group and the final draft is to be presented for approval at TfW Rail’s Safety Executive Group. There were no SPADs in Rail Period 13. Revenue Operation resulted in reduction in youths engaging in anti-social behaviour, especially on the CVL. The Board inquired as to whether conductors always announce their presence on services as a deterrent to poor behavior. It was confirmed that this does not always happen but a train announcements workstream is in existence. Leyton Powell agreed to feed this back into the review [Action Leyton Powell].

There were 14 workforce incidents in Rail Period 13, eight of which were related to slips, trips and falls / person interactions. There was one workforce RIDDOR specified injury where a conductor suffered a broken shoulder after falling between train and platform edge at Shrewsbury. The RIDDOR is under investigation to identify the root cause and to prevent a reoccurrence. 44 Workforce Physical Assaults were reported during the period. The moving annual average of seven remains above the predicted figure of four. However, physical assaults reduced by 29% in Rail Periods 11-13 compared with Rail Periods 8-10.

There were minor incidents reported relating to infrastructure works, CVL transformation and Pullman Rail.

Leyton Powell left the meeting.

 

3. Strategic update

3a. CEO report

The CEO reported that the last month has seen a continued focus by the team on delivering day to day services, planning for future services and infrastructure, and holding TfW’s supply chain to account on several projects - most notably regarding CVL design and build, and CAF for new trains.

There continues to be an improvement in the underlying performance of the rail service, but this has been impacted by a series of storms and consequential damage to Network Rail’s infrastructure as well as more recently, the impact of a further spike in Covid related absences. The Board were assured that there is no room for complacency and a culture of performance is being encouraged.

REDACTED

The Board were informed that the first meeting of the CVL Metro Protocol Working Group took place last week and was a positive session.

 

3b. Finance and governance

Finance activities over the last month focussed on financial year close, rolling stock planning, infrastructure, business planning and funding for 2022-23, REDACTED

The Board noted preliminary financial year-end figures which are subject to change pending audit and discussion with the Welsh Government. 

REDACTED

The Board thanked all involved in achieving a good year-end position.

 

4. Network Rail attendance at TfW Board meeting

The Board discussed topics for discussion with Network Rail at May’s meeting.

 

5. Board sub-committees

The Board were updated on a recent People Committee meeting. The Board agreed to draw up terms of reference to combine the People and Remuneration committees and to include duties of a nominations committee to form a ‘People, Remuneration and Nominations Committee’ [Action Jeremy Morgan].

The recent Audit and Risk Committee included a presentation from TfW’s external auditors on the audit plan, consideration of several Internal Audit reports, financial and non-financial reporting, approval of the revised Risk Management Policy, and TfW Group pensions provision.

 

6. Subsidiary boards

The Board were updated on the recent meeting of the TfW Rail Board.

REDACTED

The Board were also updated on the recent meeting of the Pullman Rail Ltd board.

 

Neil James, David O’Leary and Dan Tipper joined the meeting.

 

9. Communications report

The Real Social Network campaign was recently launched and will be followed by bus and active travel elements. Early indications are that the campaign is having a positive impact with 96% of adults sampled having seen / heard the campaign, while on average each person has seen / heard the campaign 13.61 times. There has also been a significant increase in website visitor traffic resulting from calls to action from rail marketing activities from a standing start. Engagement on social channels also increased.

Areas of disused retail space at Wrexham General and Cardiff Central have been turned into private space for Ukrainian nationals to use before making their onwards journeys.

Fewer major events and better weather resulted in a quieter period for reactive media enquiries, although busy /disrupted services generated some coverage. This enabled the use of proactive media activities to promote upcoming work on the Core Valley Lines, PTI acquisition, relaunch of the Magnificent Train Journey and Wales on Rails’ launch. The Board noted the report and welcomed the Real Social Network campaign and work for Ukrainian refugees.

Neil James left the meeting.

 

10. CVL update

The Board were further updated on progress with the CVL Transformation programme. There has been an improvement in design deliverables but full surety on impact of critical design deliverables is required. The Board were also updated on activities around smarter working, the assurance and risk management processes and use of best practice.

REDACTED

Tipper left the meeting.

 

11. Infrastructure projects six-month look-ahead

The Board noted the infrastructure projects six-month look-ahead profile.

 

12. Risk management

Leyton Powell joined the meeting. The Board noted the risk register. There were no new or emerging risks or issues. It was agreed to reduce the risk around gas and electricity prices to an issue.

The Board discussed the development of TfW’s risk appetite and agreed to:

• review and agree the current risk position, the aspirational risk position, and tolerable risk positions;
• the Chief Risk Officer drafting Risk Appetite Statements based on with approval from the Audit and Risk Committee Chair;
• the Chief Risk Officer presenting the draft Risk Appetite Statements and present to Board and the Executive to ratify;
• the Executive applying risk appetite in significant planning and decisions on strategy, major new projects and prioritisation to test intended outcome sits within tolerable risk positions;
• the Executive ensuring major decisions include expected and preferred outcomes within the tolerable risk positions and resources are identified to support appetite shift to aspirational level;
• the Board and Executive sharing TfW’s Risk Appetite Statements with key stakeholders;

The Board agreed to a facilitated session to develop the current and aspirational risk positions [Action Leyton Powell].

 

13. Bus update

Lee Robinson joined the meeting. The Board reviewed a paper setting out TfW’s proposed approach to responding to the Welsh Government’s White Paper Consultation: One Network, One Timetable, One Ticket - Planning Buses as a Public Service for Wales.

REDACTED

David O’Leary and Lee Robinson left the meeting.

 

14. Confidential session

The Board participated in a confidential session on the development of TfW’s Target Operating Model.

The Chair thanked everyone for their attendance and contributions.