Accident Reporting

Health and Safety Update (Sept 2008)

Accident reporting

Many employers will not be aware of what to do in the event of a workplace accident - who should be informed and how should it be done. Read on and find a brief outline of your duties.

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) place a legal duty on employers to report some work-related incidents. You can report incidents in a variety of ways - by telephone, fax, via the internet or by post. In the first instance we recommend that you call our advice line to clarify if indeed the incident is reportable and to get the necessary phone numbers, web addresses, etc.

You must report:

deaths;
major injuries;
over 3-day injuries – where an employee or self-employed person is away from work or unable to perform their normal work duties 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;
some gas incidents.

What are major injuries?

Fracture, other than to fingers, thumbs and 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.

Reportable over-three-day injuries

If there is an accident connected with work and your employee, or a self-employed person working on your premises, suffers an over-three-day injury you must report it to the enforcing authority within ten days.

An over-3-day injury is one which is not a major injury but results in the injured person being away from work OR unable to do their full range of their normal duties for more than three days not including the day of the accident.

Record Keeping

It is the duty of every employer to retain records of reportable accidents. Any information specifically referring to an accident must be held for at least three years. It is strongly recommended by the enforcing authorities that such records are kept in an easily-retrievable format. The minimum information to be kept should include:

the date, time and place of incident;
the name and job of the injured or ill person;
details of the injury/illness and any first aid given;
what happened to the casualty immediately afterwards (for example, "went back to work", "went home", "went to hospital")
the name and signature of the person dealing with the incident.

This information can help identify accident trends and possible areas for improvement in the control of health and safety risks.

Accident Book

This is a good starting point for accident investigation. You must use the new design of accident book, which allows for accidents to be recorded, with personal details stored separately in a secure location.

Noise and the entertainment industry guidance published by HSE

The Sound Advice web site and Sound Advice HSG 260 publication, were launched on 11 July 2008.

There is practical advice on controlling noise at work in the music and entertainment sectors. There are also examples of good practice to help you as the employer to avoid the harmful effects to employees of prolonged exposure to noise.

This publication is useful to employers who are involved in music and entertainment, including concert halls and theatres, amplified live music venues, pubs / clubs and studios.