Communicating the safety case to third parties

The fundamental reason for producing a Safety Case Report is to introduce the safety case to third parties, who may have no familiarity with the Service Provider, the functional system, or the service(s) that it provides. Descriptive material is therefore vital and the Safety Case Report format needs to ensure that many topics are addressed, ranging from basics like the parties that could be harmed and the basis upon which risks are determined to be acceptable, right through to details of design or implementation that are of particular interest. The descriptions need also to address the functional system and service(s) in the state they exist during each transitional stage.

In order to identify a comprehensive range of descriptive material, the authors consulted the CAP 1801 guidance for reviewing safety cases. CAP 1801 was chosen because the authors knew that it defines a method to systematically review safety cases in a way that is not specific to any industry sector, implementation, or specific risk acceptance principles.