Introduction to Fire Safety Management

12.1.6 Internal systems for managing adverse
event data
In addition to agreeing and implementing an action plan,
it is important to communicate the fi ndings to the workforce.
The benefi ts of this are that management continue
to demonstrate their commitment to the management
of health and safety and that the lessons learnt through
the investigation process are learnt by a wider audience
throughout the organisation.
Tracking the response to each event – organisations
will want to establish formal systems for recording
adverse events to ensure that the enforcing authorities
are notifi ed when required, information relating to injuries
to staff members is accurately recorded and to monitor
the performance of the investigation procedure. As well
as learning lessons from each adverse event it is equally
important that any longer-term trends that should attract
management’s attention are identifi ed.
Trend analysis – this can be achieved in a number
of ways. As a minimum a paper-based system can be
used where the workforce is small and adverse events
are few. It is normal for SMEs and larger organisations to
employ an electronic system for recording the necessary
data. Whichever system is used it must be able to
provide a management overview of the event experience
and enable an analysis of event trends.
Communication – the lessons learnt from each
event and trend analysis including any additional control
measures that are to be implemented must be communicated
to staff. To be most effective communication will
normally be made in a variety of ways including:
➤ Agenda items for management meetings
➤ Posters
➤ Agenda items for health and safety committee
meetings
➤ Intranet websites
➤ Seminars
➤ E-mail shots
➤ Tool box talks
➤ In-house journals.
12.2 Statutory requirements for
recording and reporting adverse
events
There are two key pieces of legislation that require
employers to record and report adverse events:
➤ Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations
and
➤ The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR).
Reactive monitoring – reporting, recording and investigation
12.2.1 Social Security (Claims and Payments)
Regulations (SSCPR)
The SSCPR require that employers keep a record of
injur ies at premises where more than 10 people work.
Under regulation 25, persons who are injured are
required to inform their employer and record the details,
including how the event occurred, in an accident book
(see Fig. 12.6).
The employer is, in turn, obliged to investigate the
cause of the event in so far as it establishes the most
basic information which should then be recorded in the
accident book. The purpose of recording the details in
the accident book is to enable the Department for Social
Security to have access to basic information in the event
of a claim being made as a result of the injury.
In order to aid employers to satisfy the requirements
of the SSCP and the Data Protection Act 1998,
the HSE has published an accident book BI 510. As
with guidance from the HSE, employers are not obliged
to use this particular book; however, they are obliged to
record the information requested on the form.
Despite the fact that HSE publish a book to record
accidents it should be remembered that the requirement
for an initial investigation and recording of personal
injury accidents is contained within the SSCPR.
To meet the Data Protection Act requirements the
personal details that are recorded within the accident
book or part of a company’s reporting and recording
system must be kept securely and only be accessed by
authorised persons.
As will be discussed later within this chapter the
information recorded within the BI 510 is of limited use
when an investigation takes place as it only records
personal injury accidents (not near misses or fi re, false
alarms, etc. if persons are not harmed).
Many organisations therefore provide additional
forms for completion, or have decided to dispense
with the basic accident book and record in a different
manner.
12.2.2 The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases
and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995
(RIDDOR)
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) require that
employers notify the relevant enforcing authority of
specifi ed injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences
that occur as a result of a work undertaking. The events
(specifi ed in RIDDOR) that need to be reported are:
➤ Death or major injury, where an employee or selfemployed
person is killed or suffers a major injury
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