Accident & incident reporting advice from Citation

Accidents and incidents aren’t nice, but they do happen. What’s most important for you as a business owner is having a robust accident reporting policy in place. That means if an accident in the workplace does occur, you have everything you need in place to properly produce a report and do everything you can to prevent something happening again.

But you don’t have to go through that process on your own. Partnering with Citation means you’ll have 24/7 access to our experts, who can work with you to confidently create safe working practices.

We’ll let you know when incidents need escalating – and why. We’ll show you how to report incidents – legally. We’ll put measures in place to prevent the same thing happening twice. And if there’s a serious incident on your site, we’ll support you through the entire process.

RIDDOR reporting

RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. Under RIDDOR, employers, the self-employed and anyone who’s in control of a business’ premises have a legal obligation to report specified incidents and accidents at work to the Health and Safety Executive.

So, not every incident is reportable, and it’s important to know the difference between what does and doesn’t need reporting. If you unnecessarily report an incident or accident, you could open the floodgates for enforcing authorities to put a magnifying glass on your business.

For a closer look at each of the categories and for some examples of RIDDOR-reportable accidents, incidents and diseases, head here.

Non-reportable incidents

We’d always recommend logging incidents and accidents that aren’t reportable under RIDDOR too, preferably in a company accident book. Why? There are three main reasons for this.

Firstly, it helps prevent similar instances from happening again by putting the spotlight on your internal processes and risk assessment compliance procedures. This improves your business’ overall safety.

Secondly, it gives you an audit trail of what happened to fall back on if an injured person goes on to lodge a claim against you.

And third, it gives you something to refer to if an enforcing authority requests supporting documents during an inspection.

For a step-by-step look at your legal requirements and exactly how to report an accident, check out our six-stage guide.

Accident reporting in the workplace: the law

When it comes to accident reporting, your legal obligations are governed by the Management of Health and Safety at Work (MHSW) Regulations 1999 and the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 2013.

As we touched on earlier, to be compliant with RIDDOR, there are specified workplace incidents you must report to the HSE.

The MHSW Regulations, however, cover all the stages you should be taking to prevent incidents and accidents in the first place. How? In a nutshell, the MHSW requires you to assess and manage all risks that arise from any work-related activity.

So, this means taking all reasonable steps to ensure incidents and accidents are avoided in the first place by:

• Appointing a competent person and/or advisor to assist with the implementation and management of safety within the workplace
• Conducting, communicating and reviewing risk assessments
• Drawing up method statements to demonstrate your safe working practices
• Putting Health & Safety handbooks and policies in place – that are clearly communicated, understood and acknowledged
• Ensuring employees are up-to-date with relevant Health & Safety training
• Providing employees with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• Making sure all your equipment and machinery is fit for purpose, regularly maintained and fitted with things like machine guarding where necessary
• Only allowing employees to carry out tasks if they’re competent to do so

Get advice from Citation

Whether it’s a near-miss or dangerous occurrence that results in someone being injured at work, Citation is here to help. We’ll support you with everything from creating your accident reporting policy to correctly reporting to the HSE or your other local authorities.

You’ll receive instant access to Atlas, our online platform. This will give you a step-by-step incident log facility, where you can record everything from photos and witness statements to relevant risk assessments and training certificates.

And, if it’s RIDDOR-reportable, it’ll take you directly to the HSE’s reporting system and give you access to lots of guidance documents.

What you get

We will give you all of the tools and support you require to properly report on workplace accidents.

• Access to a bank of accident reporting and risk assessment templates, created by our experts that can be customised for your business.
• 24/7 access to our advice line – run by a team of health and safety and accident reporting experts who can give you all the help you need.
• Information about your legal responsibilities and the consequences of getting it wrong.

Why choose Citation?

Citation has over 20 years of Health & Safety experience, which means you’re working with experienced and dedicated consultants.

We’ll equip you with all the knowledge you need to be able to confidently carry out accident reporting, as well as risk assessments for the future, and support you with managing the process as your business changes and grows.

If you’d like more information on managing your Health & Safety or getting the support of our experts, get in touch with the team today.