Investigation - Stage 2: Decide whether to investigate - Additional guidance
Initial enquiries
Initial enquiries describes those enquiries made in order to obtain sufficient information to apply the incident selection criteria, eg about the injury outcome.
Initial enquiries are not an investigation.
The enquiries may or may not be made by an inspector or by visiting site. An investigation may but will not automatically follow.
Inspectors should make clear that the purpose of initial enquiries is to help to determine whether HSE will conduct an investigation and that the enquiries are not an investigation.
It is vital that everyone (admin staff, inspectors and external stakeholders) understands that initial enquiries are to be conducted (and that an investigation may but will not automatically follow) and the purpose of the initial enquiries. Failure to do so creates uncertainty for HSE staff - they may believe that they have been asked to start an investigation with initial enquiries being the initial stage. So far as external contacts are concerned, we may unnecessarily raise the expectation that HSE is conducting an investigation.
Where significant additional information is obtained but an investigation does not follow, decide whether the information should be recorded.