This notice explains the arrangements for reporting injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences offshore under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has set up an incident contact centre to offer a facility for the reporting of all RIDDOR notifications to HSE via a single point as follows:
The regulations require that in the event of a fatal accident, major injury or dangerous occurrence, the responsible person notifies HSE by the quickest practical means and these incidents should be reported to the ICC as set out above. Guidance on when to contact HSE out of office hours is set out in paragraph 5. Definitions of a major injury and dangerous occurrence are contained in the Guide to the Regulations (See paragraph 19).
It would assist if you could also advise your normal OSD focal point inspector that a report has been made.
You should only make direct contact with HSE out of hours in the following circumstances:
The out of hours number is 0151 922 9235, which automatically connects callers with the HSE Duty Officer.
When reporting to the HSE Duty Officer, please give a brief description of the type of accident, the name and company of the caller and a contact telephone number. The HSE Duty Officer will then contact the OSD duty inspector and pass on the information. An OSD inspector will call back to obtain further information, to make any necessary arrangements for an investigation, or to give permission for the site of the accident to be disturbed.
The extent of information required by the OSD inspector in the above circumstances will not be sufficient to fulfil the full RIDDOR reporting requirements. It does, however, mean that the 'forthwith' reporting requirement has been met. It will then be necessary for the responsible person to report the details online.
These arrangements are, of course, without prejudice to the requirements to report to the police where a death has occurred offshore and with the requirement that a body should not normally be moved without their consent.
In the event of a fatal accident or major injury, the regulations require that the site remains undisturbed for a period of three days, or unless permission to disturb is given by an inspector or is necessary to secure the safety of the workplace. These requirements are unaffected by the new ICC reporting arrangements.
The Regulations require that notifications of reportable diseases are made forthwith by the employer once confirmation of the disease has been made by a registered medical practitioner. The Guide to the Regulations contains a full list of these diseases. Such notification should be made to the ICC by the most appropriate method.
.As of 6 April 2012, the over-three-day reporting requirement for people injured at work changed to more than seven days.
Now you only have to report injuries that lead to an employee or self-employed person being away from work, or unable to perform their normal work duties, for more than seven consecutive days as the result of an occupational accident or injury (not counting the day of the accident but including weekends and rest days). The report must be made within 15 days of the accident. Such reports should be made to the ICC online.
Under EU law, employers and others with responsibilities under RIDDOR must still keep a record of all over three day injuries. The record required under the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979, will be enough
It is the duty of the installation owner or operator to report the injury. Where the injury is to the employee of a contractor working on an offshore installation the installation owner or operator must make suitable enquiries in order to discharge their duty to report. The contractor must co-operate with these enquiries in line with the requirements of regulation 8 of the Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works (Management and Administration) Regulations 1995 and regulation 11 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
To enable the installation owner or operator to comply with the reporting requirements, there should be a system in place to determine an employee’s ability to return to work more than three days after an injury. The system should also be able to determine this even if, at that time, the employee is not due to return to work. The system should also be able to identify any contractors’ employees who have returned to shore after an accident, and are unable for more than three days to return to normal work of perform their full range of normal duties.
The requirement under the regulations to keep a record of incidents (including over three day injuries) and diseases remains. However, where reports are made by telephone or internet, the ICC will provide a copy of the completed OIR/9B or F2508A to the dutyholder as a record (by post or, if requested, by e-mail).
When the ICC receives sufficient information from the initial contact, by whichever means advised, there will be no requirement to submit a further written report on Forms OIR/9B or F2508A. Where further information is required this will be advised by the ICC operator. Where insufficient information is available to make a full report to the ICC, the ICC reference number should be obtained and quoted in any subsequent communication.
The voluntary arrangements to provide supplementary information on hydrocarbon releases to enable the Hydrocarbon Release (HCR) Database to be maintained remains but is not covered by the ICC service. It would be appreciated if dutyholders would continue to submit OIR12s for releases that are reportable under RIDDOR in accordance with the guidance via the following routes:
Health and Safety Executive
HCR.Admin (OSD3.1)
5.N2
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
The following publications contain further information on the arrangements for reporting under RIDDOR:
This guidance is issued by the Health and Safety Executive. Following the guidance is not compulsory and you are free to take other action. But if you do follow the guidance you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law. Health and safety inspectors seek to secure compliance with the law and may refer to this guidance as illustrating good practice
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