Background
Health and safety at Blackburn with Darwen Borough council is only dealt with reactively, depending on the seriousness of the accident.
Employers of businesses are required to report any work related incidents/accidents to the local authority. The guidance and reporting requirements can be found under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR). The Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998 determine which premises fall within local authority’s jurisdiction.
On the 21st of July 2014, Mark Mellodey approached me regarding being involved in an incident that had occurred at TCB Carpet Centre, Bolton Rd, Blackburn. Mark explained that the local authority has access to the HSE
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Acquiring Information
Whilst in the office Mark and I referred to the HSE LAC 22/13 ‘Incident Selection Criteria Guidance’. This is used to determine whether to investigate an accident or not. Certain investigations are deemed mandatory; others are at the discretion of the local authority.
Mandatory investigations involve a variety of accidents, including fatalities, amputation, fractures, burns and asphyxiation. The full list of mandatory categories can be found on the Health and Safety Executive website.
At this point, to assist me with making my decision I completed the councils Accident Investigation Selection Form (Appendix 1). The outcome was that it was at our discretion as to whether to investigate the case.
This lead me to the HSE’s Enforcement Policy Statement, which suggests that when determining whether to investigate a discretionary incident, the authority should give regard to:
• Health and Safety Executive Enforcement Policy Statement (EPS)
• Severity and scale of potential or actual harm
• Seriousness of any potential breach of the
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The trip resulted in the member of staff receiving a strain to his wrist. I checked on the HSE’s website to ensure this did not fall under the accidents which require a mandatory investigation. A strain to the wrist was not listed.
I checked the database ‘Flare’ to determine whether accidents of a similar type had occurred at this premises before. There had in fact been two other cases in the last 12 months.
The EPS states that I must give regard to the ‘duty holders past health and safety performance’. Other accidents of a similar kind had occurred recently within the same premises which could argue that the health and safety performance is potentially poor. I also took into consideration that on this occasion the accident occurred on the shop floor, which suggested to me that the general public may be exposed to the same risks.
With this in mind and the outcome of the accident investigation form, I felt that it was at our discretion and we should at least pay a visit to obtain some further information.
My main aim and the reason for visiting the site was to:
• Gather information and establish the
RIDDOR RIDDOR standard for Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. These regulations puts roles on employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises (the Responsible Person) to report certain serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases and specified dangerous occurrences (near misses). RDIDDOR is carried out so that HSE can see if it is a safe working area or not. If an accident occurred, details of the accident must be logged in the organization's accident book so they can look at the way they work and to see if they can do any changes to make workplace safer keeping suitable and accurate results helps you to identify patterns in accident and injuries and this will also help you
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Greer, M. E. (2001, October). 90 Years of Progress in Safety. Professional Safety, 46(10), 20-25. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=5367632&site=ehost-live&scope=site
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