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Incident reporting and investigation Guidance

A robust system for reporting and investigating incidents is a fundamental element in an effective health and safety management system. Although there are legal requirements to report certain types of major incident, the primary reason for such an investigation is to identify the root causes of the incident so that measures can be put in place to prevent recurrence. It is important that employees understand that the purpose of the investigation is not to place blame on individuals as their help will be required in the investigation.

Legal requirements
Under the Reporting of Injuries, Disease and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) certain injuries, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences must be reported directly to HSE. The specific events are listed in the Approved Code of Practice for RIDDOR but in summary they include: Fatal injuries. Major injuries. Incidents resulting in the injured person being kept in hospital for 24 hours. Incidents where the injured person is away from normal duties for more than 3 days. Specified occupational illness some of which are general whilst others relate to a particular activity. Specified dangerous occurrences where not injury may have occurred but which had the potential for serious injury, e.g. crane collapse, scaffolding collapse, boiler explosion. Gas incidents. Full details of those which must be reported are given on the HSE website, www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/guidance.htm. The incident must be notified as soon as possible with the simplest method being by phone to HSE Incident Contact Centre on 0845 300 9933 or alternatively you can go to www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/online.htm. You will need to keep details of the report but this will be returned by the ICC. A copy of the incident details will be sent to the enforcing authority who may arrange to carry out an investigation. If you have trade union appointed health and safety representatives they have a statutory right to carry out an investigation should they wish.

Best practice
As well as those RIDDOR incidents that must be reported to HSE, there are many more incidents which result in minor or first aid injuries, property damage or even no loss or damage at all (near misses). However, these may well have resulted in more serious consequences in

other circumstances. We should ensure that all these incidents are reported and investigated so that we can identify both the immediate and the root causes with a view to preventing recurrence. Some key aspects to be borne in mind when carrying out an investigation include: Who should investigate? In general this should be the injured persons manager but there may be a need to involve others, including: Health and safety specialist. Health and safety representative. Insurance company representative. External consultant. Engineer.

When to investigate As soon after the event as practical. Witnesses need to have the event as fresh as possible in their memory. First priority must be to deal with the injured person. Where to investigate If possible at the site of the incident. This may not be possible is, for example, HSE has isolated the site for their own investigation or the site is not safe. The investigation report should include the immediate and root causes of the incident with recommended actions to prevent both short term and long-term recurrence. The senior management should be made aware of the results of the investigation both from the point of view of providing resources and in the case of future litigation.

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