RIDDOR - To Report Or Not To Report?

A consultation has been launched by the Health and Safety Executive ("HSE") which aims to simplify and improve the reporting requirements under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 ("RIDDOR"). The scheme is in response to a recommendation in Professor Löfstedt's report last year that ambiguity over reporting requirements should be removed.

The changes will remove the duty to report in cases where the information would be of little use or better collected through other means, effectively reducing the burden on businesses. Indeed, a cost benefit analysis included in the consultation document suggests there will be a combined cost saving to the Government and businesses of £1.8 million per year.

What are the aims?

The aim of the proposals is to allow businesses to only provide as much information as they need and to make it easier for them to comply with health and safety law.

The key objectives are:

To ensure that enforcing authorities are notified of serious, individual incidents To ensure that there is sufficient information for the enforcing authorities to act in a risk-based manner To simplify the language of the reporting requirements To provide clear guidance on what needs to be reported and by what time The proposals

The HSE plans to simplify the reporting requirements of the following incidents:

All major injuries to people at work Domestic gas events The HSE plans to remove the reporting requirements of the following incidents:

The reporting by self-employed persons of injuries or illness to themselves The majority of occupational disease cases Non-fatal accidents to...