Following on from a recommendation in the recent Governmental report, entitled Common Sense – Common Safety, on the state of health and safety legislation in the UK, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has opened a three-month consultation on an amendment to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR).
The proposal is to extend from three to seven days the period before a workplace injury or accident needs to be reported to the relevant enforcing authority.
The change would bring the incident reporting threshold into line with that for obtaining a ‘fit note’ from a GP for sickness absence, and would ensure that someone who has suffered a reportable injury has had a professional medical assessment.
The consultation document is available on the HSE website. The deadline for responses is 9 May 2011.