Accident Reporting in the Workplace

What’s important though, is putting the right processes in place to avoid them as best you can, reporting the right amount – when needed, and doing everything in your power to prevent them from happening again. Sounds simpler than it is, right?

Well, that’s where we come in. When it comes to Health & Safety, we’re the experts in our arena. We’ll work with you to create safe working practices. We’ll let you know when incidents need escalating – and why. We’ll show you how to report incidents – legally. We’ll put measures in place to prevent the same thing happening twice. And if there’s a serious incident on your site, we’ll support you through the entire process.

And the buck doesn’t stop there. With us by your side, you’ll have an ever-growing list of online training courses at your fingertips, around the clock access to industry-leading Health & Safety consultants, and a means to easily log any incidents on our online management platform, Atlas.

To find out more about our Health & Safety support, simply fill in the form opposite. We provide Health & Safety services for Manchester businesses and SMEs across the UK.

RIDDOR Reporting

So, not every incident is reportable, and it’s important to know the difference between what does and doesn’t need reporting. If you unnecessarily report an incident or accident, you could open the floodgates for enforcing authorities to put a magnifying glass on your business.

For a closer look at each of the categories and for some examples of RIDDOR-reportable accidents, incidents and diseases, head here.

Non-reportable incidents

We’d always recommend logging incidents and accidents that aren’t reportable under RIDDOR too, preferably in a company accident book. Why? There are three main reasons for this.

Firstly, it helps prevent similar instances from happening again by putting the spotlight on your internal processes and risk assessment compliance procedures. This improves your business’ overall safety.

Secondly, it gives you an audit trail of what happened to fall back on if an injured person goes on to lodge a claim against you.

And third, it gives you something to refer to if an enforcing authority requests supporting documents during an inspection.

For a step-by-step look at your legal requirements and exactly how to report an accident, check out our six-stage guide.

Accident reporting in the workplace: the law

When it comes to accident reporting, your legal obligations are governed by the Management of Health and Safety at Work (MHSW) Regulations 1999 and the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 2013.

As we touched on earlier, to be compliant with RIDDOR, there are specified workplace incidents you must report to the HSE.

The MHSW Regulations, however, cover all the stages you should be taking to prevent incidents and accidents in the first place. How? In a nutshell, the MHSW requires you to assess and manage all risks that arise from any work-related activity.

So, this means taking all reasonable steps to ensure incidents and accidents are avoided in the first place by:

• Appointing a competent person and/or advisor to assist with the implementation and management of safety within the workplace
• Conducting, communicating and reviewing risk assessments
• Drawing up method statements to demonstrate your safe working practices
• Putting Health & Safety handbooks and policies in place – that are clearly communicated, understood and acknowledged
• Ensuring employees are up-to-date with relevant Health & Safety training
• Providing employees with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• Making sure all your equipment and machinery is fit for purpose, regularly maintained and fitted with things like machine guarding where necessary
• Only allowing employees to carry out tasks if they’re competent to do so