HSE consults on reduced accident reporting

THE Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a consultation based on Lord Young’s controversial proposal to reduce injury reporting requirements on businesses. Young’s report Common sense, common safety suggests changing the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) so that only accidents which require seven or more days’ absence from work have to be reported.

Under current legislation, when an employee is absent from work for more than three days following an incident or injury at work, the employer has to report the incident to either the HSE or the local council.

Unions are bitterly opposed to Lord Young’s deregulation agenda for health and safety, with the GMB general union specifically saying that changes to RIDDOR regulations would simply “serve to take a huge number of injuries out of the official statistics”.

The consultation document is available at: www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd233.htm.