Network Rail's network licence includes a condition providing for independent experts (reporters) to be appointed by the network operator (Network Rail), to provide ORR with advice on different aspects of Network Rail’s performance.
The independent reporter assesses data quality by providing a grading on two of its aspects: system reliability and data accuracy.
System reliability (graded A-D) reviews the processes and procedures Network Rail has in place to capture the data and provides a measure of the overall reliability, quality, robustness and integrity of the system that produces the data. Data accuracy (graded 1* to X) measures how close the system generated data is to the true value.