New RIDDOR to come into effect at the beginning of October

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)  2013 are due to come into effect at the beginning of next month, but what changes have been made and how will these changes affect you.

Why the call for change?

The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) has often been criticised for having overly complicated and confusing regulations which hinder the work of companies, the HSE and individuals. In an effort to response to these criticisms the HSE have decided to develop their existing regulations to reduce confusion and complexity.

What was wrong with RIDDOR?

RIDDOR has in the past been hard to comply with and understand what to report, when to report it and the correct method of reporting. This has led issues when incidents are either reported incorrectly or, arguably more seriously, not reported at all.  There have also been issues as the shear number of different categories into which an incident can be placed has made categorisation difficult and extremely time consuming.

What’s new with RIDDOR 2013?

There have been changes to three main sections; the list of “major injuries”, the extensive categories of industrial disease and the types of reportable “dangerous occurrences”.

 “Major Injuries” – The current list of “major injuries” will be consolidated into eight simpler categories in an effort to reduce confusion in categorisation, reduce paperwork and speed up the whole process. The new categories will be referred to as “Specified Injuries”.

Industrial Disease Categorisation – Once again an extensive list of categories will now be shortened to eight categories. These eight categories of reportable work related illness will replace the extensive 47 categories of “industrial disease”.  The eight reportable occupational diseases will of October be:

1.    Sever cramp of the hand or forearm

2.    Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

3.    Hand-arm Vibration Syndrome

4.    Occupational Dermatitis

5.    Occupational Asthma

6.    Occupational Cancer

7.    Tendonitis/Tenosynovitis (of the hand or forearm)

8.    Diseases attributable to occupational exposure to a biological agent.

Finally, there will be a reduction in the number of reportable dangerous occurrences, in an effort to ensure that sever cases are always reported and that time is not wasted on irrelevant occurrences.

What’s the same with RIDDOR 2013?

As expected the bulk of the reporting mechanisms and timescales have remained the same and much of the regulations regarding incidents which incapacitate workers or prove fatal have remained untouched.

What do people think of RIDDOR 2013?

As with any regulation change there is always some criticism and some reserved judgement. The majority of people will be happy to hear that the HSE are responding for called for clearer regulations and the RIDDOR represent some of the most complicated regulations the HSE has to offer.

What’s our opinion?

These changes represent to us an effort by the HSE to achieve simplification of its regulations. These changes are not in our opinion completely necessary, yet it is good to see the HSE attempt to simplify its regulations to make them as clear and concise as possible, yet standards must not be lowered and responsibilities should still be placed upon employers to report incidents which involve avoidable injury.