Reporting injuries, ill health and dangerous occurrences

Following an accident, and/or incident, or case of ill health you should consider the need to:

1. enter the accident/incident/ill-health details into your accident book (ref. BI 510);

2. report the details to your health and safety enforcing authority, generally the HSE

or your local authority, under the RIDDOR Regulations using an F2508 form (see Appendix 1), (or F2508 A for a case of ill-health); and

3. report the details to your employers’ liability (EL) broker or insurer so they can advise you of any precautions you may need to take, what information should be

gathered and recorded, and any immediate actions you should take to reduce the risk of a claim by the injured person.

You must report:

• deaths;
• major injuries;
• over-3-day injuries – where an employee or self-employed person is away from work or unable to perform their normal work duties for more than 3 consecutive days;
• injuries to members of the public or people not at work where they are taken from the scene of an accident to hospital;
• some work-related diseases;
• dangerous occurrences – where something happens that does not result in an injury, but could have done;

Injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences can be reported to HSE online at http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/ or by phoning the Incident Contact Centre on 0845 300 99 23. Both services will guide you through the legal requirements.

You also need to consider conducting an investigation to find what caused the accident and establish changes in working arrangements to prevent a recurrence (see accidents).