New
investigation criteria have been piloted in HSE's North
West region since July 2004. It is
set out in full below.
If
you would like to read how the current and piloted
criteria differ from each other, click
here.
INVESTIGATION
OF INCIDENT NOTIFICATIONS
REVISED SELECTION CRITERIA
(Except gas incidents reported under RIDDOR reg 6(1)
and 6(2))
"The
main purpose of our investigations is to determine
cause and identify the appropriate action to prevent
recurrence and deal with breaches of the law.
These selection criteria are intended to concentrate
investigation effort on incidents which had the greatest
potential for harm and are likely to have involved
a serious breach of health and safety law.
The following incidents should be selected for investigation
subject to the disqualification criteria in paragraph
6 below.
| Fatalities |
| 1 |
All
fatalities, whether RIDDOR reportable or not,
as a result of an incident arising out of or in
connection with work activities. This specifically
excludes suicides, deaths from natural causes,
and work-related road traffic incidents where
HSE has no investigation role (see OM 2000/124). |
| Major
injuries |
| 2 |
The
following major injuries to all persons, including
non-employees, irrespective of cause:
| (1) |
all
amputations of digit(s) past the first joint
where the incident involved potential for
more than one finger or for hand/arm amputation; |
| (2) |
amputation
of hand/arm or foot/leg; |
| (3) |
crush
injuries leading to serious multiple fractures
(more than one bone, not including wrist
or ankle), or internal organ damage, e.g.
ruptured spleen; |
| (4) |
head
injuries involving loss of consciousness; |
| (5) |
burns
and scalds covering more than 10% of the
surface area of the body; |
| (6) |
permanent
blinding of one or both eyes; |
| (7) |
asphyxiations. |
|
| |
Incidents
that result in a RIDDOR-defined major injury in
the following categories:
| (1) |
workplace
transport incidents; |
| (2) |
falls
from a height of greater than 2 metres; |
| (3) |
manual
handling incidents resulting in sprains
and strains and requiring admittance to
hospital for more than 24 hours; |
| (4) |
electrical
shock or burnleading to unconsciousness,
requiring resuscitation or admittance to
hospital for more than 24 hours. |
|
| Occupational
diseases |
| 4 |
All
reports of cases of occupational disease that
meet the criteria of reportability under RIDDOR,
except those arising from circumstances/situations
which have already been investigated. |
| Serious
public concern |
| 5 |
All
incidents likely to give rise to serious public
concern. This reflects the views of the public
at large not just those of an individual. Give
particular consideration to incidents involving
children, vulnerable adults, and multiple casualties
where the outcome or potential outcome or breach
is serious. |
| 6 |
Dangerous
occurrences with the potential for directly causing
the deaths of or major injuries to a number of
people, or a large number of cases of occupational
disease, severe human infection or illness. |
| Disqualification
criteria |
| 7 |
Any
of the following circumstances will disqualify
the incidents and diseases in paragraphs 2-4 above
from investigation. Circumstances 2 and 5 below
will not disqualify incidents likely to give rise
to serious public concern or with the potential
for the outcomes in paragraphs 5 and 6 above.
| (a) |
inadequate
resources or other developing priorities
prevent investigation - in this circumstance
the incident must be referred to the Head
of Operations;
|
| (b) |
the
related breach of health and safety law
is unlikely to have been serious. (ie. where
the Enforcement Management Model national
enforcement expectation would not determine
a notice or a prosecution); |
| (c) |
no
reasonably practicable precautions available
for risk reduction; |
| (d) |
investigation
is impracticable (e.g. witnesses or evidence
are unavailable, or disproportionate effort
would be required to obtain them); |
| (e) |
investigation
is unlikely to achieve results (e.g.. significantly
improve, or secure sustained compliance);
|
| (f) |
incidents
of non-fatal injuries in paragraphs 2 and
3 or occupational diseases to members of
the public, and where any of the following
apply:
| - |
HSW
Act Section 3 cannot be applied; |
| - |
there
is another agency with adequate enforcement
powers to deal with the incident;
|
| - |
the
incident does not involve a topic
or sector falling within one or more
of the HSC Priority Programmes.
|
|
|
The differences between the two sets of criteria
are set out below.
| • |
At
present, the criteria divides reportable incidents
into two types: those incidents that should
be investigated - deaths and certain kinds
of major injuries - and those incidents for
which HSE inspectors have a discretion about
whether or not to investigate (depending upon
how serious they are..
The
piloted document does not allow for any disrection
on the part of inspectors. There is only has
one category of incident - those that are required
to be investigated (unless they fall within
certain 'disqualifying' criteria.)
The piloted instructions, therefore, do not
allow inspectors to investigate an injury or
incident which falls outside the specified criteria
but which in their view, for example are "likely
to have been a serious breach of health and
safety law".
|
| |
In
relation to deaths, the current criteria state
that the HSE will only investigate 'reportable
deaths'. The piloted criteria s say that even
those that are not reportable should be investigated,
as long as they are the result of an incident
arising out of or in connection with work activities
|
| • |
a
number of categories of injuries which would currenly
require investiation, would no longer do so:
| - |
At
present, "all amputations of digit(s)
past the first joint" need to be investigated.
the piloted criteria say that only those
amputations of digits past the first joint
"where the incident involved potential
for more than one finger or for hand/arm
amputation" need to be investigated; |
| - |
At
present all "serious multiple fractures
(more than one bone, not including wrist
or ankle" from whatever cause need
to be investigated.
the piloted criteria say that it will only
be necessary to investigate such injuries
if they result from a "crush injury"
or they are associated with "workplace
transport" or "falls from height". |
| - |
At
present all "scalpings" have to
be investigated. Under piloted Criteria,
scalpings would no longer require investigation.
|
| - |
At
present it is necessary to investigate "any
incident which arose out of working in a
confined space". Under the piloted
criteria this would no longer be necessary
unless it resulted in 'asphxiation' or other
categories of injuries that requires investigation. |
|
| |
There
are a number of new categories of reported incidents
that under the new criteria would require investigation:
| - |
any
"manual handling incidents resulting
in sprains and strains and requiring admittance
to hospital for more than 24 hours"
will now be required to be investigated. |
| - |
dangerous
occurrences with the potential for directly
causing a number of deaths or major injuries
or a large number of cases of occupational
disease, severe human infection or illness.
|
|
| |
There is a new set of 'disqualifying' conditions
in the .
If any of the following conditions apply in relation
to any of the incidents that require investigation,
there will no longer be a requirement on the part
of an inspector to investigate the incident.
These are as follows:
| - |
if
there are "no reasonably practicable
precautions available for risk reduction" |
| - |
if
the "investigation is unlikely to achieve
results (e.g. significantly improve, or
secure sustained compliance)" |
| - |
if
it is a "work-related road traffic
incident where HSE has no investigation
role as set out in the document "OM
2000/124" |
In addition, if there has been an injury or
occupational disease suffered by a member of
the public, then an inspector will no longer
be required to investigate the incident in the
following circumstances:
| - |
if
Section 3 of the HSW Act cannot be applied;
|
| - |
if
there is another agency with adequate enforcement
powers to deal with the incident; |
| - |
if
the incident does not involve a topic or
sector falling within one or more of the
HSC Priority Programmes. |
In
addition, apart from where the incident is "likely
to give rise to serious public concern"
or where there has been a ‘dangerous occurrence
with the potential for causing a number of deaths
or major injuries, then an incident will be
disqualified from investigation if either:
| - |
"the
related breach of health and safety law
is unlikely to have been serious. (ie. where
the Enforcement Management Model national
enforcement expectation would not determine
a notice or a prosecution); |
| - |
investigation
is unlikely to achieve results (e.g.. significantly
improve, or secure sustained compliance);"
|
In
addition, if there are "inadequate resources
or other developing priorities" that "prevent
investigation" the incident must be "referred
to the Head of Operations" for him or her
to decide whether or not to investigate.
|
:
|
