Whether someone has injured their eye walking into the office Christmas tree or has had to be hospitalised falling off a ladder, accidents have to be reported to the relevant authorities. Nasar Farooq explains the requirements.
Incident/accident reporting is an important aspect of monitoring or measuring safety performance and allows an organisation, through investigations, to learn from mistakes and improve safety. Accident reports made to the enforcing authority are used to compile national statistics on health and safety performance and to help identify trends in specific work sectors, such as construction, agriculture and service industries.
Accident investigations
An accident report may also prompt an investigation by the enforcing authority. Enforcement officers have the power to investigate every incident notification that they receive. However, investigations are normally prioritised in terms of the severity of injury that has either occurred or had the potential to occur.
Therefore, it is essential that employers introduce a reporting system the workplace for all:
- accidents and incidents;
- dangerous occurrences;
- diseases; and
- near misses.
This system should apply equally to employees, contractors and visitors. It will allow employers to:
- comply with statutory provisions under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR);
- carry out any necessary investigations; and
- measure their safety performance and benchmark against national statistics.
Compliance requirements
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) require the ‘responsible person’ to report the following instances to the relevant enforcing authority. The enforcing authority will either be the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or the local authority. Accidents or incidents to be reported include:
- deaths;
- certain major injuries (Sch. 1 of RIDDOR);
- injuries that cause absence for more than three days (including days that are not normally worked, e.g. weekends); and
- certain diseases (Sch. 3) and dangerous occurrences (Sch. 2).
The ‘responsible person’ will either be an employer, a self-employed person or someone in control of the premises.
The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 require the employer to inform an appointed union safety representative of a notifiable accident to allow the representative to conduct an investigation.
Employees’ duties
The Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 requires employees to co-operate with employers to enable them to fulfil their statutory duties. This includes reporting all dangerous occurrences, near misses and accidents whether or not they resulted in injury, damage or disease.
The Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979 require employees to give notice to their employers, either verbally or in writing, of any personal accident in respect of which a benefit may be payable. The duty of the employee to report accidents is fulfilled if the employee, or his or her representative, records the details of the accident in a book or forms containing the same information.
Persons not at work
Where a fatality, major injury or over three-day injury occurs to persons not at work, e.g. visitors or members of the public, this should be reported to the relevant authority if the fatality or injury was a result of work being undertaken.
Internal reporting procedures
It is important for employers to implement an effective internal reporting procedure, which includes the provision of an accident book, in addition to reporting procedures under RIDDOR.
All reporting procedures should be detailed within a policy. Management should encourage the reporting of all incidents.
The RIDDOR regulations reporting procedures
Where an injury, disease or dangerous occurrence is reportable under the RIDDOR regulations, the responsible person has the following two options:
1. Incident Contact Centre
Notification can be made to the Incident Contact Centre (ICC) by:
- Telephone. 0845 300 9923.
- Fax.0845 300 9924.
- Web. www.riddor.gov.uk.
- Post: Incident Contact Centre, Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly, CF83 3GG.
The report will then be forwarded on to the appropriate enforcing authority.
A copy of the report made to the ICC will be sent back to the duty holder for correction, if necessary. A record of reported incidents must be kept for inspection by visiting officers.
2. Enforcing authority
Notification can also be made to the local office of the enforcement authority (either the HSE or the local authority) by the quickest practicable means and/or on the approved statutory form (F2508), according to the category of the incident.
The enforcing authority is the body responsible for enforcing the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (and other relevant statutory provisions) in the premises where, or in connection with the work at which, the reportable event happened.
The split of enforcement responsibility between the HSE and local authorities is determined by the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998.
Local authorities are responsible for enforcing health and safety legislation in:
- retail premises;
- some warehouses;
- most offices;
- hotels and catering establishments
- sports and leisure facilities;
- consumer services;
- places of worship; and
- residential accommodation.
In practice, notifying ‘by the quickest practicable means’ will normally entail a telephone call to the enforcing authority during normal office hours. It is advisable to keep a note of telephone notifications, including:
- the time of the call;
- the name of the caller; and
- the details given of the notified event.
The approved form for making reports is F2508. This may be freely photocopied in order to make reports.
Summary of key points for employers/responsible persons
- An accident reporting policy and system should be in place to ensure that all procedures are followed correctly.
- A monitoring system should be in place to ensure that accidents, diseases, dangerous occurrences and near misses are reported and investigated accordingly.
- All employees must give notice to employers of any personal injury caused by an accident at work. This is usually done by entry of the details into an accident book.
- Employees and managers should receive training to raise their awareness of the need to report all incidents and the procedures to follow.
- The notifiable accidents should be reported to the enforcing authority in a timely manner.
- The responsible person should inform their Employers Liability Insurers of any reportable accidents resulting in personal injury or disease.