Last week the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched a consultation on proposals to simplify and clarify the reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences, in response to the Government-requested Löfstedt report.
The Löfstedt report recommended that ambiguity over reporting requirements be removed and called the study Common Sense, Common Safety, with the implication that some legislation is too onerous and not needed.
Currently, accident or illness in the workplace is governed by RIDDOR (the reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations) 1995 but the proposed changes open to consultation would 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.
So, for example, the self-employed would no longer have to report injuries to themselves and employers would not have to report dangerous occurrences outside high-risk sectors or activities.
In its bid to cut unnecessary red tape, the Government has already introduced some changes to RIDDOR in April this year, which meant that employers are no longer required to report injuries that keep workers off normal duties for seven days or fewer.
David Charnock, HSE’s consultation manager, 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.
“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 public consultation is open until October 28 this year and can be responded to by post or e-mail with details available from the HSE’s website.