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HSE consults on RIDDOR reform

3 Aug 12 The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has begun a 12-week consultation on proposals to simplify the reporting of workplace injuries.

The changes proposed to the 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 enough, quality data is available, HSE said.

For example, it is proposed that self-employed people will no longer have to report injuries or illness to themselves. Also to go is the duty on employers to report dangerous occurrences outside of high-risk sectors/activities and requirements to report most occupational diseases.

However, little or no change is envisaged that impacts upon the construction industry. 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 consultation manager David Charnock said: "We 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.

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The proposals do not indicate any change in HSE's policy or strategic objectives, and we will continue to focus our investigations on those incidents that meet our published selection criteria."

The proposal is in response to a recommendation in Professor Löfstedt's report in November 2011 that ambiguity over reporting requirements should be removed. The Common Sense, Common Safety report for government 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.

The consultation on proposals to change RIDDOR reporting requirements from 2013 is open from 2 August until 28 October 2012. The full document can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd243.htm.

The consultation on wider changes to RIDDOR follows injury reporting changes which took effect in April. Employers now have to report injuries that keep workers off normal duties for seven or more days, rather than three or more days. This change to RIDDOR was recommended in the Common Sense, Common Safety report.

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