Workplace Report October 2007

Health & safety - HSE Monitor

Reporting accidents

A new HSE report has questioned the need to collect data on accidents at work that do not lead to injuries, on the grounds that this may be an “administrative burden” on business.

A report by the HSE’s Health and Safety Laboratory asked just 14 organisations for their views on how data might be collected – such as by pilot study, large-scale survey or case studies. And its general pessimism about the cost of doing so suggests that the HSE will simply react to injuries when they happen rather than requiring employers to collect data which could avoid them occurring at all.

The cost of non-injury accidents (RR585) is available at www.hse.gov.uk/RESEARCH/rrpdf/rr585.pdf