Simply Put – Accident Reporting

Accident Reporting

This week’s Simply Put article takes a closer look at accident reporting. The article covers:

• What do we mean by ‘accident’ and ‘incident’?
• What accidents should we report?
• What are the benefits of good accident reporting procedures?

Accidents and incidents

So, first things first – what are accidents and incidents?

• Accident: an event that results in injury or ill health
• Incidents: near misses (where an event not causing harm has the potential to cause injury or ill health) and undesired circumstances (conditions/circumstances that have the potential to cause injury or ill health).

What should be reported?

If you’re looking at accident reporting, you will no doubt have come across the acronym ‘RIDDOR’, This stands for Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013, and is the legislation that puts duties on employers to report certain serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases and specific near misses.

Therefore, under RIDDOR, there are certain accidents and incidents that employers have a legal duty to report. Full details of these can be found here.

Whilst it may not be a legal requirement to record and report every incident and accident in the workplace, by doing so you are standing yourself in much better stead to monitor risks in your workplace. By doing so, you may prevent a serious occurrence later down the line.

Why is accident reporting important?

Sometimes accident books are seen as a source of unnecessary paperwork and bureaucracy, but reality there are serious benefits to maintaining a good level of accident reporting.

By having good accident reporting procedures in place, companies are able to monitor workplace hazards. Repeated incidents, problem areas, and patterns in accident reporting can lead to better, safer work practices being employed.

Accidents can prove very costly for businesses, and these costs can come in many guises. Legal costs, fines, sick pay, loss of production, insurance premiums are just some of the potential costs of an accident in the workplace. Therefore it is in a business’ best interests to take steps to reduce this likelihood.

Paying attention to incidents in the workplace can also provide vital information that practices are unsafe, and steps can be taken to prevent more serious occurrences from happening in the future.

Actively encouraging accident and incident reporting is an important step in creating a positive health and safety culture. By demonstrating that you are taking health and safety seriously, it encourages others to do the same. Letting your workers know you care about their welfare can be a good morale boost for the workforce. This improved health and safety culture can make employees more cooperative with other procedures and be more aware of the safety precautions they should be taking.

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HSE guidance on accident reporting can be found here. 

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