Conformity assessment of safety related systems to IEC 61508-the CASS initiative

Since the mid-1980s, industry has placed increasing reliance on programmable safety-related systems. Both the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have supported a number of research and development programmes within this field to increase awareness, encourage technology transfer, foster the development of methods, tools and conformity assessment schemes, and address the issues around competency of safety practitioners. This article outlines the CASS (Conformity Assessment of Safety-related Systems) initiative, which is supported by the DTI under its Sector Challenge Programme and is tasked with developing a conformity assessment scheme for safety-related systems based on the IEC 61508 standard.