Essay: Principles underpinning reporting, recording of accidents & incidents

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013, or more commonly known as RIDDOR is the statutory obligation set out to all responsible persons to report accidents, injuries, deaths and ‘near misses’ that not only happen to employees but also no employed individuals within a workplace so as to include visitors and other contractors too.

A competent person is generally assumed to the employers or a manager of sorts to which deals with the health and safety of the workplace, this could be the HSE, a self employed worker, gas engineers/suppliers etcetera. Failing to report the instance can be punishable by law and can incur heavy fines.

RIDDOR is used when there is either a death within the workplace, an injury (within certain guidelines) happens, hospitalisation from injuries or there is a near-miss/dangerous occurrence that takes place.

It is used to review and manage what errors or mistakes can take place, eventually by reviewing the information received it can be used to change work practices that are a risk and remove it so that both employers and employees are safer at work. Therefore reducing days lost, injury claims and generally safer practices.

When an incident occurs and RIDDOR comes into effect the competent person within that workplace should report it to the Health & Safety executive, which would be either by phone or through an online application. It must be submitted within 10 days of the accident as by the regulation. A list of injuries that need reporting are as follows;

• Fractures, other than to fingers and toes.

• Amputations

• Any injury likely to lead to permanent loss of sight or reduction in sight

• Any crash injury to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs

• Serious burns (including scalding) which;

o Covers more than 10% of the body

o Causes significant damage to the eyes, respiratory systems or other vital organs

• Any loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia

• Any other injury arising from working in an enclosed space which;

o Leads to hypothermia or heat-induced illness

o Requires resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours.

“http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/reportable-incidents.htm”

LO 4.2 Describe the procedure used to record and report accidents, dangerous occurrences’ or near misses at RAF Cosford

Within RAF Cosford there are many different H&S Regulations to comply by all of which are there to protects us, the employee and the other users of the site premises whether it be contractors, visitors or even trespassers.

If any of the circumstances involved in RIDDOR whether it be an injury as already stated above or a disease, illness, near miss, Incident or so if it meets the criteria of RIDDOR it must be reported. Within RAF Cosford this can be done easily by using the chain of command within your workplace.

Reporting the case to your line manager would be the first port of call for any employee. Onwards from this there would be an accident form that would have to be completed by the individual describing the instance and allowing it to be rectified.

In the case of others such as visitors or contractors within the camp it would fall under the respective sponsor for the individual, namely the line manager involved. However depending on contractors they may have their own reporting procedures however they would still have to pass this information to the station so It can be processed.

Finally on the chance of a trespasser becoming a case for RIDDOR they come under the care and responsibility of OC RAF Police Flight, who would also deal with them appropriately.

As stated in the station ‘accident and incident reporting’ form;

“All employees, Service and civilian, are required to report any accident, injury, dangerous occurrence / near miss or disease occurring in the workplace directly to their Line Manager (LM) without delay. Casual or agency staff are also required to report occurrences to their Line Manager on Site and to the Agency through which they are employed. All injuries are to be recorded on the Accident Record Sheet in the area where the employee was injured or is employed. “

“RAF Cosford SHEF –Leaflet 10”

From here the line manager would complete an RAF Form 7454. This would then be passed onto the respective hands (SHEP Advisor) as soon as possible. It would then be transferred onto the Accident Incident Reporting System (AIRS).

HEALTH AND SAFETY ADVISOR:

16. The SHEP Advisor is to ensure that:

a. The details from the RAF Form 7454 are transferred onto the Accident Incident Reporting System (AIRS) in accordance with the guidance at Ref B.

b. Where an event is reportable to any of the regulatory authorities, this is to be highlighted on the RAF Form 7454 and a report made by the quickest available method.

c. Any RAF Form 7454 or HSE F2508/2508A raised in respect of service personnel which indicates either:

(1) Injury to person or property as a result of hostile action or assault,

or

(2) An injury that is of sufficient severity as to warrant a RIDDOR report to the HSE should be copied to SNCO P1 for entry inclusion on the individual’s personal file and further investigation if so required.

d. Any occurrence, which may be of potential interest to the public or media, is brought to the attention of the Media Comms & Co-ordination Officer (MCCO).

“RAF Cosford SHEF –Leaflet 10”