Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme (CHIRP) is a charity funded by the CAA and the maritime industry with the aim of contributing to the enhancement of aviation safety in the UK and maritime safety worldwide, by providing a totally independent confidential (but not anonymous) reporting system.
If an employee working in the aviation sector feels unable to report their safety concerns to either their employer or the CAA they can contact CHIRP. CHIRP’s Aviation Programme improves safety in the air by providing a totally independent confidential reporting system for all individuals involved in aviation in UK’s airspace.
Any aviation-related safety or security issues that give rise to concern may be reported to CHIRP, however the legal responsibility to report accidents to the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch and safety related occurrences, including accidents, to the UK Civil Aviation Authority in accordance with EU Regulations should be understood. If the reporter feels unable to report through these channels CHIRP represents an independent method for raising concern. CHIRP is primarily concerned with safety-related reports about Human Factors and/or Just Culture/Reporting Culture issues. Such reports may include but are not confined to: human skills, performance and training; rules, procedures and regulations; the design and use of aircraft and equipment; communication; workplaces, manpower, organisation and management.
CHIRP also provides an independent confidential reporting function for reporting Bullying, Harassment, Discrimination and Victimisation (BHDV). It is recognised that one-off or repeated instances of BHDV can impact an individuals performance, mental health, stress and company culture, and that these in themselves can have second-order safety implications. In conjunction with the CAA, CHIRP has implemented a BHDV reporting function that will log received reports and associated information within the CHIRP confidential database. Only CHIRP staff will have access to these details, there is no connectivity to CAA systems. CHIRP has no specific expertise or resources to investigate reports about BHDV and their role is to anonymously compile the data from associated reports to build a picture of the prevalence of BHDV in the aviation sector, the human factor and safety impacts this may have, and explore improvements that might be made.
Periodical newsletters entitled FEEDBACK are delivered by e-mail to all UK pilots, ATCOs, FISOs and licensed engineers using the CAA’s database of e-mail addresses. Anyone else can ask to be added to the CHIRP database of addressees by contacting CHIRP at mail@chirp.co.uk, FEEDBACK can also be accessed via the CHIRP website and via the CHIRP smartphone and tablet Apps. The CAA has an agreement with CHIRP that we will create a SkyWise alert for each FEEDBACK edition which is sent to anyone signed up to receive alerts for the relevant categories.
Please visit the CHIRP website to read more about what CHIRP does.
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