HSE Consultation on RIDDOR

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has recently started its 3 month consultation on proposed changes to RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995). These proposed changes derive from recommendations in Lord Young’s Review on health and safety (Common Sense, Common Safety – published at the end of last year). One of the proposals was for an increase in the threshold for reporting workplace injuries from 3 days up to 7 days.

Currently under RIDDOR, when an employee is absent from work for more than 3 days following an incident the employer is required to report the injury to the relevant enforcing authority (that is the HSE or the Local Authority). The proposed amendment to RIDDOR increases this “over 3 day” period to “over 7 consecutive days”. The proposed change would serve to align the RIDDOR incident reporting threshold with that for obtaining a “fit note” from a GP for sickness absence. This would have the potential benefit of ensuring that someone who has suffered a reportable injury has had a professional medical assessment.

09 May 2011 is the deadline for submission of responses to this RIDDOR consultation and a copy of the full HSE consultation document (CD233) is available by clicking here.