Recording and Reporting Incidents

Incident recording and reporting contribute greatly towards an effective internal system of an organisation.

Video: Accident Reporting. Source

Type of accidents/incidents

In order to control occupational risks and hazards in an organisation, the following types of incidents/accidents should be detected or noted.

• all injury accidents;
• cases of ill-health;
• sickness absence;
• dangerous occurrences;
• damage to property, the environment, personal effects and work in progress;
• incidents with the ability to cause serious injury, ill-health or damage;

Analysis

Analysis of all information in report forms is very helpful for preparing an essential management data. Reports of analysis must display trends and comparisons using relevant tables and graphs and should be provided to all employees along with the managers either through the Health and Safety Committee and safety representatives or directly in small organisations. It is very important to take appropriate action if any faults are noted in the analysis report.

According to UK HSE, the formula for calculating an annual injury incidence rate is:

Number of reportable injuries in financial year / Average number employed during the year x 100, 000

The formula for calculating injury frequency rates is:

Number of injuries in period / Total hours worked during the period x 1,000,000

National authorities like UK HSE and industry prefer calculating incidence rates whereas other parts of the industry calculate the injury frequency rates.

Organisational Requirements and Reporting to External Authorities

The best way of recording accidents or incidents is maintaining an accident book or an accident report form with at least the name of the witness included in it so as to meet the requirements of an organisation.

A qualified or competent person should be appointed for recording and reporting the accidents/incidents. The competent person is accountable for reporting all the details on time to the safety representatives or any responsible employee as mentioned in the national laws and regulations. In addition, the reporting procedure can also be carried out through online official forms where the competent person receives a confirmation email along with the completed copy of the form once the person has send it to the notifier.

Figure: Online version of incident reporting system. Source

Lessons Learnt

After evaluating the organisations’ working methods and identifying the areas of improvement the national authorities’ should make a plan which includes SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time bound) to help the organisations’ improvise the workplace environments and prevent further workplace accidents, injuries or illnesses. The plan of action should be checked for progress and must be modified frequently with reasonable safety instructions, safe working procedures and risk assessments if applicable.

Collection of Information, Compensation and Insurance Issues

The first objective of an investigation is to prevent workplace accidents or injuries that will lessen compensation claims. The second objective of an investigation is collecting and recording reasonable data in order to manage the compensation claims. Appropriate decisions should be taken as to which accidents has more chances of resulting in claims and then a detailed information must be collected on that basis.