Proposals to Revise the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and

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Letter to Branches




No. 628/12
Ref EX5
Date: 20 August 2012


To: All Branches

Dear Colleagues,

HSE Consultation CD243 - Proposals to Revise the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR ‘95)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has opened a 12-week consultation on proposals to simplify and clarify how businesses comply with the requirements under the Reporting of Injuries, Disease and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (as amended) (RIDDOR ’95).

The review is part of HSE’s programme to make it easier for businesses and other users to understand what they need to do to comply with health and safety law, following recommendations made in Professor Löfstedt’s independent review of health and safety legislation.

The proposals also seek to implement the changes recommended in the 2010 Government Report, ‘Common Sense, Common Safety’, by re-examining whether RIDDOR is the best approach to providing an accurate national picture of workplace accidents.

A copy of the Consultation Document CD243 and standard Reply Form are attached for your attention and information. An online questionnaire response form is also available. This consultation ends on 28 October 2012. Responses should be sent to:-
Dave Charnock
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Liverpool
L20 7HS
Tel No: 0151 951 3826
Fax: 0151 951 4191
Email: RIDDOR2013@hse.gsi.gov.uk

This is the second Consultation conducted by the HSE on proposed amendments to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)1995. The consultation is on a package of wider changes to RIDDOR and follows injury reporting changes which took effect in April. Employers now have to report injuries that keep workers off normal duties for more than seven days, rather than more than three days. This change to RIDDOR was also recommended in the Government commissioned Common Sense, Common Safety report. Branches will recall our response to Consultation Document CD233 published in LTB 432 /11 on 4 May 2011 when CWU strongly opposed to the changes proposed by Lord Young in his report "Common Sense, Common Safety" which the HSE were under instruction to implement.

CWU saw no justifiable good reason to change the period of incapacitation after which an injury to a person at work must be reported to the enforcing authority from over three to over seven days which will further complicate the process rather than simplify it.
Further to this CWU made it clear that in our view there is an urgent need for the HSE to address the issues as identified by the HSE in the 2005 RIDDOR Consultation in respect of the enforcement of the Regulations.

The changes proposed to Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995 will remove the duty to report in cases where the information is of little use or better collected through other means, while still ensuring that sufficient, quality data is available.

The proposals include self-employed people no longer having to report injuries or illness to themselves, and the removal of both the duty on employers to report dangerous occurrences outside of high-risk sectors/activities and requirements to report most occupational diseases. The need to report all fatal injuries to workers and those to members of the public as a result of a work activity would remain, as would the duty to report major injuries to workers.

HSE state that they are proposing to simplify the requirements by removing the duty to report in those areas where the information can be better obtained from other sources or where the data isn't particularly useful to the regulators. They add that the proposals do not indicate any change in HSE's policy or strategic objectives, and we will continue to focus investigations on those incidents that meet our published selection criteria.

The proposal is in response to a recommendation in the Government commissioned Professor Löfstedt's report in November 2011 that ambiguity over reporting requirements should be removed. The Common Sense, Common Safety Government report published in October 2010 also recommended a re-examination of RIDDOR to determine whether it was the best approach to providing an accurate national
picture of workplace accidents.

As expected, the spending cuts and government attacks on health and safety protection for our members at work continue with what is a dramatic proposed revision of the legal system for reporting workplace injuries, dangerous occurrences and diseases from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE's consultation document will mean an end to the current duty under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995 to report conditions including certain strain injuries, poisonings, vibration diseases, dermatitis and occupational cancers, dust diseases and asthma. Only the much rarer work-related biological diseases, including Q fever, rabies and Legionnaires' disease, would remain reportable. HSE is also proposing that self-employed people no longer having to report injuries or illness to themselves, and the removal of both the duty on employers to report dangerous occurrences outside of high risk sectors activities (including Royal Mail BT and other communications industry companies employing CWU members). The need to report all fatal injuries to workers and those to members of the public as a result of a work activity would remain, as would the duty to report major injuries to workers.

As has been pointed out by the CWU Health, Safety & Environment Department in previous consultations and reviews of RIDDOR going back to the 2005, ten year review, the RIDDOR system requires improvements, strengthening and proper enforcement. What is needed is to improve RIDDOR and its enforcement in order to obtain better data, not "water it down" further and to do nothing about enforcement.

Little useful data at all looks to be the result of the proposals if they remain unchanged and are implemented.

The consultation on proposals to change RIDDOR reporting requirements from 2013 is open until 28 October 2012. It follows injury reporting changes which took effect in April. Employers now have to report injuries that keep workers off normal duties for over seven days, rather than over three days, which lops an estimated 30,000 injuries a year off the official work injury statistics.

The TUC Union Health and Safety Specialists Committee (of which Dave Joyce is a member) will be meeting to consider the proposals in detail and a detailed response will be made by the Health, Safety & Environment Department in due course. CWU Safety Reps are encouraged ensure a good response to the CD.

Attachments:-
HSE Consultation CD243 - Proposals to Revise the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR ‘95).
HSE Reply Form.

 
Yours Sincerely
 
 
Dave Joyce
CWU National Health, Safety & Environment Officer