Accident and Incident Record
Health & Safety Xpert™ Total Toolkit is an easy to use software package that will save you massive amounts of time producing crucial health and safety documentation legally required under current UK law. This includes the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and the new Construction Design Management (CDM) Regulations 2007.
Reporting accidents and ill health at work is a legal requirement. 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 you on preventive action to reduce injury, ill health and accidental loss - much of which is uninsurable.
RIDDOR, or the ‘Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995’, places a legal duty on:
- employers;
- the self-employed; and
- those in control of premises;
to notify and report some work-related accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences to the relevant enforcing authority for their work activity.
You must keep a record of any reportable injury, disease or dangerous occurrence using an Accident & Incident Record supplied with Health & Safety Xpert software. 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.
The law requires the following work-related incidents to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive RIDDOR Incident Contact Centre (Tel. 0845 300 9923 – telephone number correct at time of going to press):
- deaths;
- major injuries;
- over-3-day injuries – where an employee or self-employed person is away from work or unable to work normally for more than 3 consecutive days;
- injuries to members of the public or people not at work where they are taken from the scene of an accident to hospital;
- some work-related diseases;
- dangerous occurrences – where something happens that does not result in an injury, but could have done;
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.
Use the Accident & Incident Record included in Health and Safety Xpert software to record all work-related incidents and to record that they have been reported to the Health and Safety Executive. It is important to file these records so that they could be consulted by an inspector if necessary.
I’m self-employed. What do I need to do?
If you are working in someone else’s premises and suffer either a major injury or an injury which means you cannot do your normal work for more than three days, then they will be responsible for reporting, so, where possible, you should make sure they know about it.
If you or a member of the public is injured while you are working on your own premises, if there is a dangerous occurrence there, or if a doctor tells you that you have a work-related disease or condition, then you need to report it.
However, as a self-employed person you don’t need to notify immediately if you suffer a major injury on your own premises. Either you or someone acting for you should report it within 10 days.