Accidents at work

The Health & Safety Committee (HSC) announced on 7 May 2001 that "employers should have a compulsory duty to investigate workplace incidents", and would be consulting on how to legislate for this.

The HSC are proposing a compulsory duty for all companies and organisations to investigate all reportable work-related accidents, ill health or ’near misses’ which could have resulted in serious injury. They are also considering whether this new duty should also be extended to non-reportable accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that if every single reportable incident not at present investigated by employers was investigated and acted upon, this could save society up to £1.8 billion per year in preventable incidents, including £600 million to businesses.

Their proposals - which would require an amendment to present health and safety law - would require employers to:

 investigate all reportable incidents to find out how they happened and how they might be prevented in future
 keep a record that an investigation has been carried out and that its conclusions have been taken into account in revising the workplace risk assessment. Such records would be kept for a minimum of three years and could be subject to scrutiny by the HSE and its inspectors.

Existing law on Accident Reporting

Under the Social Security (Claims & Payments) Regulations, factory employers or any employer who employs 10 or more people must record all accidents, however minor the injuries. The record, which is normally an accident book should be kept in an accessible place and may be inspected by enforcing officers. Accident books should be stored for at least three years after the date of the last entry.

RIDDOR ’95

RIDDOR ’95 is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995, which came into force on 1 April 1996.

RIDDOR ’95 requires the reporting of work-related accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences. It applies to all work activities, but not to all incidents.

Why it is essential to report

Reporting accidents and ill health at work is a legal requirement for employers. The information enables the enforcing authorities to identify where and how risks arise and to investigate serious accidents. The enforcing authorities can then help and advise employers on preventive action to reduce injury, ill health and accidental loss. The HSE state that "workplace incidents continue to be a cause for concern" and provisional figures for 1999/2000 show there were 216 work-related deaths and over 181,000 work-related injuries in Britain’s workplaces.

Who is covered by the Regulations

Employers, the self-employed or those in control of work premises all have duties under the Regulations.

When does an employer need to act?

The Regulations oblige the reporting of:

 Deaths
 major injuries
 accidents resulting in 3 days off work
 diseases
 dangerous occurrences

Death or major injury

If there is an accident connected with work and:

 an employee, or a self-employed person working at your place of work is killed or suffers a major injury (including as a result of physical violence)
 or a member of the public is killed or taken to hospital

Then the ’responsible person’, usually the employer or person in control of premises where such an event has occurred must notify the enforcing authority without delay.

Reportable major injuries are:

 Fracture other than to fingers, thumbs or toes;
 amputation;
 dislocation of the shoulder, hip, knee or spine;
 loss of sight (temporary or permanent);
 chemical or hot metal burn to the eye or any penetrating injury to the eye;
 injury resulting from an electric shock or electrical burn leading to unconsciousness or requiring resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours;
 any other injury: leading to hypothermia, heat-induced illness or unconsciousness; or requiring resuscitation; or requiring admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours;
 unconsciousness caused by asphyxia or exposure to harmful substance or biological agent;
 acute illness requiring medical treatment, or loss of consciousness arising from absorption of any substance by inhalation, ingestion or through the skin;
 acute illness requiring medical treatment where there is reason to believe that this resulted from exposure to a biological agent or its toxins or infected material.

Over-three-day injury

If there is an accident connected with work (including an act of physical violence) and an employee, or a self-employed person working at your premises, suffers an over-three-day injury your employer must report it to the enforcing authority within ten days.

An over-three-day injury is one which is not major but results in the injured person being absent from work or unable to do their normal work for more than three days (including any days they would not normally be expected to work such as weekends, rest days or holidays) not counting the day of the injury itself.

Disease

If a doctor notifies a member of staff that he or she is suffering from a reportable work-related disease then the employer must report it to the enforcing authority.

Reportable diseases include:

 certain poisonings;
 some skin diseases such as occupational dermatitis, skin cancer, chrome ulcer, oil folliculitis/acne;
 lung diseases including: occupational asthma, farmer’s lung, pneumoconiosis, asbestosis, mesothelioma;
 infections such as: leptospirosis; hepatitis; tuberculosis; anthrax; legionellosis and tetanus;
 other conditions such as: occupational cancer; certain musculoskeletal disorders; decompression illness and hand-arm vibration syndrome.

Dangerous occurrence

If an incident occurs which does not result in a reportable injury, but which clearly could have done, then it may be a dangerous occurrence which must be reported immediately to the enforcing authority by the employer.

The responsibilities of the self-employed

If a self-employed person is working on your premises and suffer either a major injury or an injury which means they cannot do their normal work for more than three days, then they will be responsible for reporting. The employer where the contractor is working should advise them of their obligations.

Where do employers report to?

All accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences may be reported by your employer to the Incident Contact Centre. The Contact Centre was established on 1st April 2001 as a single point of contact for receiving all incidents in the UK.

The Incident Contact Centre will forward details of incidents to the relevant enforcing authority, either the environmental health department of the local authority or the area office of the Health and Safety Executive, depending on the type of business concerned.

Keeping records

An employer must keep a record of any reportable injury, disease or dangerous occurrence. This must include the date and method of reporting; the date, time and place of the event, personal details of those involved and a brief description of the nature of the event or disease. Records on reportable events must be retained for three years.

Guidance on keeping records

An employer could, for example, choose to keep their records by:

 keeping copies of report forms in a file;
 recording the details on a computer;
 maintaining a written log.

Accident Reporting and H & S Reps

The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations (SRSCR) give reps the right to conduct an inspection after there has been a notifiable accident or dangerous occurrence or where a notifiable disease has been contracted.

The regulations say reps can inspect where it is "reasonably practicable" for them to do so, provided it is safe to do so and in the interests of employees represented. Following an incident, the only acceptable reason for anything to be moved is as a precaution against further hazards and for rescue purposes. The regs support reps’ rights to take witness statements after an accident has occurred.

By consulting your constituents on a regular basis regarding workplace accidents you can monitor how successful your company is in recording workplace accidents and then implementing preventative measures.

Consider suggesting workplace accident management as a regular item at joint management and safety representative committees.

Request at safety meetings that the company’s records of incidents be made available for regular examination; they will show what progress the company is making in reducing the occurrence of workplace accidents and if a problem exists, whether it is changing.

If the preventative measures are working well, this suggests the present policies are effective. If workplace accidents are still a problem, the company must identify, consider and implement other preventive measures, and must consult H&S reps on such measures.

This announcement by the HSC regarding a new legal duty for employers to investigate certain accidents will provide further opportunities for H & S reps and their constituents to contribute to workplace health and safety. Clearly, the principle of this proposed measure represents ’best practice’ and reps should request, where appropriate, that all accidents are investigated as per the HSE’s guidelines.