New RIDDOR Regulations Now In Place

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has updated its Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) while also altering the way in which companies must undergo first aid training within its ranks. The HSE claims that the changes have been made in order to make the first aid and health and safety regulations easier for businesses to follow. The new rules offer a more common sense approach to the topic of health and safety.

Whereas it was once necessary to have first aid training approved by HSE, companies are now free to look around and choose the training that they provide their staff. All businesses, regardless of size, stature, or industry are affected by these changes and there are still certain conditions that must be met for training to be considered suitable and legal but these are considerably easier than they were.

RIDDOR, which outlines the necessary reporting process that companies undergo when an accident occurs, has also been changed. The list of major injuries has been replaced by a shorter and less complex list of specified injuries. With fewer injuries to have to choose from this should make the process a simpler and more streamlined one and it means that businesses will not have to take as long preparing incident and accident reports.

Similarly, the previous list of 47 industrial disease types has also been replaced with a shorter list. There are now 8 categories of industrial disease or work related illness that need to be reported. The final change is that there are fewer types of dangerous occurrence that require reporting and all of these changes should enable businesses to be able to complete accident reports quicker while ensuring that they still provide the relevant level of information and data.

It is important that businesses and organisations do report accidents, injuries, and illnesses when required. If the employee takes action then the report can be used during the subsequent case and the HSE may choose to investigate itself if it believes that there is a case to do so. If accidents have not been reported then this can lead to action being taken against the company.

Accidents At WorkDec 2nd, 20130 comments