4.3 Recording And Reporting Incidents Flashcards
Nebosh Learning Outcome 2016
4.3 Describe the legal and organisational requirements for recording and reporting incidents
4.3 Recording and reporting incidents
- Typical examples of major injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences
- Statutory requirements for recording and reporting incidents
- Additional organisational requirements for recording and reporting incidents
- Accident Book
- The requirement for recording and procedure for reporting fatalities, specified injuries, ‘over 3 or 7-day injuries’, disease and dangerous occurrences
- Internal systems for collecting, analysing and communicating data
- Collection of relevant information and its availability in a civil claim
- Lessons learnt.
Outline some of the factors which might be involved in poor management decisions
- unrealistic timescales for implementing plans, which put pressure on people to cut corners and reduce supervision
- work scheduling and rosters which failed to take account of the problems of fatigue
- inadequate resources allocated to training
- organisational restructuring which placed people in positions for which they had insufficient experience
- jobs and control systems which failed to recognise or allow for the fact that people would be likely to make mistakes and might have difficulties communicating with each other
RIDDOR types of reportable injuries
- Deaths and injuries
- The death of any person
- Specified injuries to workers these are defined in regulation 4 of RIDDOR2013 and include:
- fractures, other than to fingers, thumbs and toes
- amputations
- any injury likely to lead to permanent loss of sight or reduction in sight
- any crush injury to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs
- serious burns (including scalding)
- Over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker
such accidents must be reported where they result in an employee or self-employed person being away from work, or unable to perform their normal work duties, for more than seven consecutive days as the result of their injury. - Over-three-day incapacitation; accidents which result in a worker being incapacitated for more than three consecutive days.
Such accidents must be recorded, but not reported. - Non fatal accidents to non-workers (eg members of the public)
- Occupational diseases, as defined in RIDDOR regulations 8 and 9:
- carpal tunnel syndrome
- occupational dermatitis
- hand-arm vibration syndrome
- occupational asthma
- any occupational cancer
- diseases associated with biological agents … etc
Dangerous occurrences specified as near-miss events.
In the ‘General’ category for example:
- the collapse, overturning or failure of load-bearing parts of lifts and lifting equipment
- plant or equipment coming into contact with over-head power lines
- the accidental release of any substance which could cause injury to any person
- any accident or incident which results or could have resulted in the release or escape of a biological agent likely to cause severe human infection or illness
- equipment used in industrial radiography, the irradiation of food or the processing of products by irradiation, which fails to de-energise at the end of the intended exposure period
- the malfunction of breathing apparatus with a significant risk of personal injury to the user
- Incidents involving gas (accidental leakage, incomplete combustion, unsafe appliances …)
What are the, Statutory requirements, for recording and reporting incidents:
HSE Accident book Bl 510
Under the social security (claims and Payments) Regulations 1979, Regulation 25, employers must keep a record of accidents at premises where more than 10 people are employed
Anyone injured at work is required to inform the employer and record information on the accident in an accident book, including a statement of how the accident happened.
RIDDOR 2013 requires employers, the self-employed and those in control of premises, to report certain more serious accidents and incidents to the HSE or other enforcement authorities and to keep a record.
The requirement for recording and procedure for reporting fatalities, specified injuries, over 3 or 7-day injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences
- Death or serious injury: the responsible person must notify the enforcing authority by the quickest practical means.
- Over 7-day lost time injury: the responsible person must report to the enforcement authority within 15 days.
- Reportable occupational disease: if a doctor notifies the responsible person that an employee suffers from a reportable work-related disease they must report to the enforcement authority within 10 days.
- reportable dangerous occurrences: are specified near-miss events. Not all such events require reporting. But all dangerous occurrences must be reported immediately.
RIDDOR
Why would organisations need :
Internal Systems for Collecting and Analysing Incident Data
Managers need effective internal systems to know whether the organisation is getting better or worse, to know what is happening and why, and to assess whether objectives are being achieved.
Internal Systems for Collecting and Analysing Incident Data
Each organisation needs to lay down what the system involves and who is responsible to do each part of the procedure.
What will this involve:
- what type of incidents should be reported; - who completes the incident report form, normally the manager responsible for the investigation
- how copies should be circulated in the organisation
- who is responsible to provide management measurement data
- how the incident data should be analysed and at what intervals
- the arrangements to ensure that action is taken on the data provided.
The data should seek to answer the following questions: - are failure incidents occurring, including injuries, ill health and other loss incidents?
- where are they occurring? what is the nature of the failures?
- how serious are they?
- what are the potential consequences?
- what are the reasons for the failures?
- how much has it cost?
- what improvements in controls and the management system are required?
- how do these issues vary with time? is the organisation getting better or worse?
What type of accident/incident will most organisations want to collect data on?
- All injury accidents
- Cases of ill-health
- Sickness absence; dangerous occurrences
- Damage to property, the environment, personal effects and work in progress
- Incidents with the potential to cause serious injury, ill-health or damage(undesired circumstances).
Collection of relevant information and it’s available in a civil claim:
- Compensation and insurance issues.
- The second objective of an investigation should be to collect and record relevant information for the purposes of dealing with any claim.
- It must be remembered that, in the longer term, prevention is the best way to reduce claims and must be the first objective in the investigation.
Collection of relevant information and it’s available in a civil claim:
- Compensation and insurance issues.
Key legislation to counter the rising “compensation culture”
- The legal system in England and Wales changed dramatically with the introduction of the Woolf reforms in 1999, and the introduction of the pre-legal action protocols:
- ‘Letter of claim’ to be acknowledged within 21 days
- Ninety days from date of acknowledgement to either accept liability or deny.
- If liability is denied then full reasons must be given
- Agreement to be reached on using a single expert.
What also changed was the introduction of: - Section 47 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, by virtue of Section 6 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, removes the standard of strict liability from certain health and safety regulations.
- No civil case may be brought for breach of statutory duty unless a regulation expressly provides for it.
Lessons learned from an incident and remedial actions taken:
- After a thorough investigation there should be an action plan for the implementation of additional risk control measures
- The action plan should have SMART objectives, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Agreed, and Realistic, with Timescales.
- Despite financial constraints, failing to put in place measures to control serious and imminent risks is totally unacceptable
- Either reduce the risks to an acceptable level, or stop the work.
- Each risk control measure should be assigned a priority, and a timescale with a designated person to carry out the recommendation.
- There should be regular consultation with employees and their representatives to keep them fully informed of progress with implementation of the action plan.
- Relevant safety instructions, safe working procedures and risk assessments should be reviewed after an incident.
- It is important to ask what the findings of the investigation indicate about risk assessments and procedures in general, to see if they really are suitable and sufficient.
