EnglishIncident reporting
Employers need to know that incidents have occurred so that they can investigate the cause, and take action to prevent it happening again.
Some incidents must be reported to the enforcement authorities. They include accidents that result in:
- a death
- any type of injury, dangerous occurrence or disease that is specified by law – give relevant examples (such as most fractures, amputations, permanent loss of sight/major fire, explosion, building collapse/carpel tunnel syndrome, HAVS, occupational dermatitis, asthma or cancer, etc.)
- an injury resulting in absence from work for more than seven days
- injuries to non-workers (members of the public or people not at work) needing to go to hospital immediately
This information informs the annual health and safety statistics for Great Britain published by the Health and Safety Executive.
Why is incident reporting important?
For employers to:
- identify the cause
- improve control
For enforcement authorities to:
- identify where and how risks arise
- investigate serious accidents
- give advice on how to reduce injury and ill health in the workplace
- provide evidence for the introduction of new legislation and/or guidance
Employers need to know that incidents have occurred so that they can investigate the cause, and prevent it happening again. This is why incident reporting is so important.
The information provided through recording and reporting also helps the enforcement authorities.
Without a proper incident recording and reporting system most incidents in the workplace – and the information that can be derived from them – will be lost.
Remember incidents include near misses and, next time, the causes of a near miss could result in an accident leading to a work-related injury or even death.