Consultation opens on RIDDOR change

The Health and Safety Executive has opened a three-month consultation on proposed changes to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995.

Changes to RIDDOR were recommended in Lord Young’s report on health and safety published last year, which contained a proposal to increase the threshold for reporting workplace injuries to seven days.

Under current rules, when an employee is absent from work for more than three days following an incident, employers are required to report the injury to the relevant enforcing authority – either the HSE or the local council. The proposed amendment increases this 'over-three-day' period to over seven consecutive days.

The change would align the incident reporting threshold 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 paper is available online at www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd233.htm[1]. The deadline for responses is 9 May 2011.