Accidents in the workplace
Cost to businesses
Accidents cost businesses money through both direct and indirect
injury costs and damage to the business reputation, therefore it is
in the businesses best interest to prevent accidents occurring. The
risk assessment process will enable you to identify any areas of
your business where accidents could possibly occur and to implement
suitable control measures to reduce the possibility of those
accidents occurring to as low as is reasonable practicable.
You also need to assess the near misses that occur or those
incidents where people may just pick themselves up and walk away,
as they may potentially result in a serious incident in the future
but could be prevented now. Good communication is needed between
the employer and staff to ensure that these sorts of incidents are
identified and can be addressed and to review your current risk
assessments. Accident prevention steps are just as important as
those taken after an accident occurs and usually cost less.
Visit the costs section
of the Health and Safety Executive website for an indication of how
much accidents are likely to cost your type of business.
Accident book
All injuries to employees regardless of how minor they may
appear must be recorded in an accident book kept on the premises,
where ten or more persons are employed at any one time as required
by the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979.
It is strongly recommended that you record this information even
if you have less than ten employees.
Accident book should include the following information:
- Name and address of the person 'injured' or
involved in the incident;
- What happened, when & where?
- Who witnessed the incident, and
- Any other relevant details.
There is no requirement for injuries to non-employees to be
recorded in an accident book unless they are reportable under
RIDDOR (see below), however it is recommended that they are
recorded for your own information and assessment and also if any
claims are made against the business.
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences
Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) requires the employer, self employed or
person in control of a work premises to report some work-related
accidents, disease and dangerous occurrences.
When do I need to make a report and how?
You need to report the following:
Death or major injury
If there is an accident connected with work and;
- Your employee, or a self employed person working
on your premises is killed or suffers a major injury; or
- A member of the public is killed or taken to
hospital.
- You must notify the Incident Contact Centre
(ICC) without delay (e.g. by telephone), and within 10 days follow
this up with a completed accident report form F2508 (see related
links at the bottom of this page).
Over-three-day injury
If there is an accident connected with work and your employee,
or a self-employed person working on your premises, suffers an
over-three-day injury you must send a completed accident report
form F2508 to the ICC within 10 days (see related links at the
bottom of this page).
An over-three-day injury is one which is not major but results
in the injured person being away from work or unable to do the full
range of their normal duties for more than three days (including
any days they wouldn't normally be expected to work such as
weekends, rest days or holidays) not counting the day of the injury
itself.
Disease
If a doctor notifies you that your employee suffers from a
reportable work-related disease you must send a completed disease
report form F2508A to the ICC (see related links at the bottom of
this page).
Dangerous Occurrence
If something happens which does not result in a reportable
injury, but which clearly could have done, it may be a dangerous
occurrence that must be reported immediately (e.g. by telephone) to
the ICC then followed up with a completed accident report form
F2508 (see related links at the bottom of this page).
Who do I report to?
Reports should be made to the Incident Contact Centre by one of
the following methods:
The ICC will then inform the relevant enforcing authority who
may then investigate the accident.
You must keep a record of any reportable injury, disease or
dangerous occurrence for three years after the date on which it
happened.
A suitable assessment / investigation should be carried out of
all incidents and any remedial action identified to prevent such a
reoccurrence must be carried out, it is recommended that this is
recorded.