Accident Reporting and Investigation

What does the Council need to know about?

Under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995, employers, the self-employed and anyone in control of a work premises are required to report some work related accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences to either the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or the Local Authority.

The reporting of certain work related accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences is a legal requirement and the information allows the HSE and the Local Authority to identify where and how risks arise and to investigate serious accidents.

With this information the HSE and Local Authority can then give employers or others concerned advice on how to reduce injury, ill health and accidental loss.

When do you need to report an accident, illness or dangerous occurrence?

You must make a report if there is an accident, disease or dangerous occurrence connected with work and it involves:

• The death or major injury of an employee or self employed person;
• A member of public being killed or taken to hospital
• An over-three-day injury of an employee or self-employed person which results in the injured person being away from work or unable to do the full range of their normal duties for more than three days
• A notifiable disease - if a doctor notifies you that your employee suffers from a reportable work- related disease; and
• A dangerous occurrence which does not result in an injury, but may have done

Major injuries include (although not exclusive):

• Fractures (but not including fingers, thumbs or toes); amputation
• Dislocation of 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
• Electric shock or burn leading to unconsciousness, requiring resuscitation or hospital admittance for more than 24 hours

Notifiable diseases include (although this is not an exhaustive list):

• Some skin diseases such as occupational dermatitis, skin cancer, chrome ulcer, oil folliculitis/acne
• Lung diseases including occupational asthma and asbestosis
• Infections such as legionellosis, tetanus and hepatitis and tuberculosis

Dangerous occurrences include (but not exclusive):

• Collapse, overturn or failure of load-bearing parts of lifts and lifting equipment
• Plant or equipment coming in to contact with over-head power lines
• Electrical short circuit or overload causing fire or explosion
• Failure of any load-bearing fairground equipment, or derailment or unintended collision of cars or trains
• Explosion or fire causing suspension of normal work for over 24 hours

A list of all major injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences can be found in the HSE publication 'A Guide to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regs 1995.  L73' from the HSE.

How to report an injury, disease or dangerous occurrence

You can report incidents:

To the Incident Contact Centre via:
Telephone: 0845 300 9923 (local call rate)
Fax: 0845 300 9924
e-Mail: riddor@natbrit.com
website: www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/ or
Post to: Incident Contact Centre, Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly, CF83 3GG

Reports to the Incident Contact Centre are then passed to the relevant enforcing authority.

Please contact us for further information.

The reporting forms can be downloaded from www.hse.gov.uk

Do I need to keep any records?

Employers must keep records for three years of any reportable injuries, diseases or dangerous occurrences.  The records must include:

• The date and method by which the incident was reported
• The date, time and place of the incident
• The personal details of those who were involved
• A short description of the nature of the event or disease.

The Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations and Social Security Administration Act 1992 require an employer to keep a record of all incidents and accidents were persons are injured.  The Data Protection Act 1998 requires records about individuals to be kept confidential.  The HMSO have produced Accident Book BI 510 reference ISBN 071762 6032 to enable employers to comply with these duties.

What happens once the Council receives an accident report?

Once an accident report has been received, we will determine whether we are the enforcing body.

Hastings Borough Council is the enforcing body in the following types of workplaces within its geographical area:

• Takeaways, pubs, restaurants, cafés;
• hairdressers, beauty parlours, saunas and skin piercing
• nurseries and play-groups (but not those in schools)
• hotels, caravan sites and short-stay accommodation
• art galleries, golf clubs, health clubs and riding establishments
• work involving the provision of animal accommodation eg zoos and boarding kennels
• offices
• churches
• residential homes (not nursing homes)
• funeral parlours
• shops
• warehouses

If we are the enforcing body then we investigate the accident.

If not then we refer it to the HSE or the Local Authority in whose area the incident happened or relevant Enforcement Authority.

We investigate all reportable accidents and have adopted a local performance indicator to respond to notifiable accidents within 7 days of receiving the notification.

When a Notification is received we normally attempt to contact the injured party by telephone or letter to request details about the accident or incident.  We aim to visit the accident site where this is appropriate within a maximum of seven working days.  If the incident has resulted in a death or multiple injuries, then the scene is visited as soon as possible.

When the Investigating Officer visits the site of an accident or incident, the Officer gathers details and any relevant information relating to the incident.

After visiting the site, the Officer will then gather any other relevant information that relates to the accident or incident.

After the investigation

An investigation may take several weeks and will involve the investigating Officer contacting employers, manufacturers, witnesses or any other relevant party involved to gain a full picture of the incident.

Once all the evidence and information has been gathered, then the Officer will decide the most appropriate course of action as determined by their findings, Health & Safety Legislation and the Council's Enforcement Policy.

The Investigating Officer may take informal action such as giving verbal advice or writing to the employer or any other person who is responsible to secure improvements if they are required.  Alternatively formal action may be taken including Prosecution, serving Improvement Notices requiring works to be carried out, Serving Prohibition Notices to stop something being done or issuing a Formal Caution.

If the Injured Party is taking their own civil action, then the Council can provide a factual report or witness statement for the Injured Party or any other person involved in litigation.

Compensation/damages or redress will not be sought or negotiated by the Council.