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Accident reporting

Legal duties

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR), place a legal duty on:

• employers;
• self-employed people;
• people in control of premises;

to report work-related deaths, major injuries or over-three-day injuries, work related diseases, and dangerous occurrences (near miss accidents). The easiest way to do this is by calling the Incident Contact Centre (ICC) on 0845 300 99 23 (local rate).

For information on what is reportable visit  RIDDOR|.

Costs of accidents and ill-health

It is easy to underestimate the costs of a workplace incident. In addition to the human suffering caused, other costs quickly accumulate including temporary staff cover, sick pay, investigation time, production delays, loss of contracts, legal costs, repairs to damaged products and plant and loss of business reputation.

Further information on the costs of accidents and ill-health, and how to estimate them, can be found at  Health and Safety Executive - Cut Costs|.

Recording accidents

All businesses are advised to record all accidents to employees and non-employees occurring at your work premises. Data protection law requires all completed accident records to be secured so that persons other than those managing the records cannot view them. An accident book is available for recording accidents that satisfies the requirements of the health and safety legislation and Department of Work and Pensions. Accident books are available from a variety of sources, including  Health and Safety Executive Books|.

Investigation of accidents

Businesses are advised to investigate accidents to identify action that can be taken to prevent similar incidents occurring again. It is important to look at the adequacy of your policies, procedures and systems as well as the immediate cause. The relevant risk assessments should be reviewed also to see if improvements can be made.

Environmental Health investigates all reported fatalities and serious accidents. An Officer may ring you for information regarding the accident or they may arrive at your premises unannounced. The Officer will explain what the investigation will involve and will inform you of the outcome. The outcome following an accident investigation usually involves giving businesses advice. If there is a blatant breach of the legislation then formal action will be taken.

In the event that someone who has been injured as a result of a work related accident wishes to pursue a compensation claim their legal advisor may wish to obtain a factual statement from us. This details the investigation and the findings. There is a charge for factual reports.

For details, telephone Environmental Health on 01422 392344.

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