What happens after I submit an incident report?

Once we receive the report we disidentify it (that means we anonymise it), taking out all the details that could identify you. Only the CHIRP team member dealing with the report will know that it is connected to you. The report is then analysed by us, and we might reach out to you to clarify questions the report raises, and to agree with you on how you would like the report resolved. We will then follow up as you have requested.

Issues are identified and raised anonymously with our advisory board specialists, who give their advice on how to take the lessons from the report forward. We sometimes publish these lessons in our monthly Feedback newsletter so that the wider community can learn from them too. At no point is your identity or that of the company you work for revealed.

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How do you ensure my details are kept confidential?

CHIRP takes the privacy of your data very seriously. Your data is entered into our database and held there whilst we process the report. The data is disidentified, but records of the disidentified report are kept so that we can refer to them in the future when analysing trends in safety reporting for wider sector learning. Once we have gone through the process described above (2), and go back to you to check you are happy with the outcomes of the report you made, we close the report and delete all personal data from our database.

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Who decides what is written in your comments?

The CHIRP team member receiving your report decides what comments to make in relation to the report, and then takes this analysis in anonymised form, to an advisory board (sector specialists who volunteer their time to be an advisory board member for CHIRP). The advisory board reviews every anonymised report in that sector and gives their advice on the report.

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Who can I follow up with?

If you have submitted a report already, a member of the team will get back to you. If you would like to submit a report but have further questions or questions about something else please send your details and a short comment to mail@chirp.co.uk This is checked weekly and queries are directed to the right team member as soon as possible. Please bear in mind that our team works part-time and we endeavour to reply as quickly as we can.

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How do you ensure your independence?

CHIRP is an independent charity registered with the Charity Commission (https://www.gov.uk/find-charity-information). It has its own board of trustees who are drawn from the aviation, maritime, public, private and third sectors who are specialists in their own fields. The board is responsible for the governance and strategic direction of the charity. CHIRP maintains a continuous dialogue with all its donors, but donors are not involved in any of the strategic or operational decisions of the charity. Advisory boards of specialists drawn from across the sector also mean that CHIRP has a wide range of opinions and experience to draw on.

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Who funds your activities?

The Civil Aviation Authority funds our Aviation Programme as part of their responsibilities to ensure an independent confidential reporting service to the UK aviation industry. They have been doing this since our inception.

The Maritime Programme is funded by a number of trusts, foundations and private companies – many over several years. A full list of our funders can be found on Our Supporters page (add link). We are hugely grateful to them all, for the amazing support they give us. We continue to fundraise to give the charity a more stable financial base, and are looking for supporters to donate or help us with fundraising.

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How can I support CHIRP?

We have an amazing group of volunteer specialists and a small team at the Secretariat. There are several ways in which you can support CHIRP. You could become an advisory board member, an ambassador, or a member of the charity (see below). Or you could spread the word about what we do, raising awareness so that more people use our services. You can also donate to the charity as a one-off, or regularly. If you are interested in any of the above, please get in touch at mail@chirp.co.uk.

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How do I become a member/advisory board member/ambassador of CHIRP?

Trustees of the board are members of the charity and are responsible for approving all new members. When gaps are identified on our advisory boards, the Secretariat works with the advisory board chair to see how to fill those gaps. Sometimes we will advertise for a role, at other times suitable people are recommended. Once a selection has been made, a recommendation for approval is made to the board of trustees who will confirm the appointment. Once an advisory board member has attended three advisory board meetings a year, they may be invited to join the charity as a member. Ambassadors are identified in a similar way and the appointment is made by the programme director.

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What do you mean by human factors?

Despite rapid evolutions in technology and ways of working, maritime and aviation activities are still at their core carried out by people, and people are at the heart of a safe environment and drive a just culture. This means that the systems and technology that we use in our sectors need to be as user-friendly as possible and safe by design. As we know, human performance depends on a variety of factors. In our sectors, the design and manufacture of ships, aircraft and technology we use, day-to-day operations undertaken by staff and the support that is provided to us can be exposed to human vulnerabilities and variability of performance.

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What is just culture?

CHIRP believes a just culture is central to encouraging safer environments. A just culture facilitates appropriate safety improvement through valuing people and their reporting of safety-related concerns. This allows everyone to learn essential lessons from those concerns, and ensure that people feel listened to, treated fairly and taken seriously.

It is also widely agreed that a just culture operates within a structured organisational framework where unacceptable behaviour will be fairly addressed. In a just culture, behavioural principles are agreed upon and are transparent, at every level of an organisation, with clear lines of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and appropriate and proportionate positive action taken where necessary, for example training.

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