A Guide for Managers Fire Service Guide Volume 2

---

The Reporting Of Injuries, Diseases
And Dangerous Occurrences
Regulations 1995

Enforcing Authorities

The enforcing authority for the Regulations is the body responsible for enforcing the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974, in the premises where, or in connection with the work at which, the reportable event happened. This can be either the HSE or the local authority's Environmental Health Department, but in the case of fire service activities or incidents in fire brigade premises it will always be the HSE.

The purpose of these Regulations - commonly referred to as RIDDOR - is to provide the HSE with the information it needs to improve health and safety conditions at work.

Briefly summarised, in its application to fire brigades, the requirements of RIDDOR are as follows.

Notifications to HSE

The Regulations require responsible persons to notify the local area office of the HSE in the following circumstances:

Death or major injury

Notify by the quickest practicable means leg by telephone) and follow up with a completed accident report (Form 2508) within 10 days if there is an accident connected with work and:

• an employee, or a self-employed person working on the premises, is killed or suffers a major injury (including an injury resulting from physical violence); or
• a member of the public is killed or taken to hospital.

It should be noted that these are the only circumstances in which reports need to be submitted concerning members of the public

Major injury is defined in Schedule 1 to the Regulations.

It should be noted that, under Regulation 10, accidents involving vehicles moving on public roads are not reportable unless they involve or are connected with:

• exposure to any substance bein~ conveyed by road;
• vehicle loading and unloading activities;
• activities concerned with the construction, repair and maintenance of roads, roadside hedges and fences, or struchtres and buildings adjacent to roads; and
• an accident involving a train where a person is killed or injured.

Over 3-day injury

• send a completed accident report within 10 days if there is an accident connected with work (including an act of physical violence) and an employee, or a self-employed person working on brigade premises, suffers an over 3-day injury. An over 3-day injury is one which is not major but results in the injured person being away from work leg on sick leave) or unable to do their normal work leg on light duties) for more than 3 days (including non-work days but discounting the day ofthe accident).

Dangerous occurrences

• notify without delay and follow up with a completed accident report within 10 days, specified types of dangerous occurrences. A list of these reportable dangerous occurrences is given in the schedules to the Regulations.

Brigade Reporting Responsibilities

Fire Brigade Premises

When a reportable death, injury or dangerous occurrence happens in premises owned or occupied by a fire brigade, it is the brigade's responsibility to notify the HSE. This is the case whether the injured person is a brigade employee, a trainee, a visitor, or a self-emploved contractor.

• In the case of 'Peripatetic Employees' i.e. emoloyees who regularly work at different sites, such as service engineers or building workers, it is the worker's employer who must inform the HSE. The employer must, therefore, be contacted by telephone immediately in order that this statutory obligation can be fulfilled.

Operational Incidents

• Brigades are responsible for reporting the death of, or major injury to, any brigade employee at an operational incident.
• If a reportable injury is suffered by a person who is not a brigade employee or a dangerous occurrence happens during an operational incident, it will be the brigades responsibility to notify the HSE, provided that;
  • the event happened whilst the premises were under the control of the brigade; and
  • it occurred in connection with fire brigade operations e.g. a serious injury to a member of the public following equipment failure or the release of chemicals from a pressurised cylinder by firefighters.
• The HSE does nor considw brigades to be responsible for reporting injuries to persons, other than brigade employees if these injuries arise directly from the incident itself e.g. fatalities at a fire in a workplace, or an injury to a workman due to the collapse of a trench.

Death Within One Year

If an employee who has suffered an injury as a result of a reportable accident i.e. a 'major injury' or an 'over three day injury', dies from his injuries within one year of the accident, the employer must inform the enforcing authority in writing.

This requirement applies whether or not the enforcing authority was notified of the original accident..

Disease

if a doctor notifies the brigade that an employee suffers from a reportable work-related disease a completed disease report form must be submitted forthwith to the HSE area office.

Notification of reportable diseases is dealt with in Section 4 (Work Related Sickness).

Form of report

The regulations require that reports shall be in a form approved by the HSE. The Executive has published:

• Form 2508 for the reporting of accidents and dangerous occurrences; and
• Form 2508A for the reporting of diseases.

Record Keeping

To comply with the Regulations brigades are required to keep a record of any reportable injury, dangerous occurrence or disease. This must include:

• the date and method of reporting;
• time and place of the event;
• personal details of those involved, and
• a brief description of the event or disease.

It is for the brigade to determine the form in which the record is kept, for example by keeping copies of completed report forms in a file or recording the details on a computer. The records should, however, be readily retrievable, so that they can be produced for an inspector of the HSE if requested.

The record must be preserved for a period of 3 years, It should normally be kept at the premises of the person responsible for submitting the reports.

Further Guidance

Comprehensive information about RIDDOR is contained in:
Guide to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrences Regulations 1995, published by HSE Books
ISBN 01176 1012 8

This contains the text of the Regulations together with a detailed commentary.

---

© Crown copyright 1998 Extracts from The Fire Service Guides Volumes 1 to 4 have been reproduced on this Web Site by Colin Simpson under licence from the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Permitted Use. Visitors to this Web Site are granted permission to access this Crown copyright material and to download the Crown copyright material onto electronic, magnetic, optical or similar storage media provided that such activities are for private research, study or in-house use only Restricted Use. Visitors to this Web Site must not copy, distribute, sell or publish any of the Crown copyright material taken from this Web Site. Any other use of the material requires the formal permission of the Controller of Her Majesty' s Stationery Office." The full text of the Fire Service Guides are available from: The Stationery Office Ltd The Publications Centre PO Box 276 London SW8 5DT Tel 0171 873 9090 Fax 0171 873 8200

---