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Second HSE Consultation On Proposed Changes To RIDDOR Begins The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has opened a 12-week consultation on proposals to simplify and clarify how businesses comply with the requirements under the Reporting of Injuries, Disease and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (as amended) (RIDDOR ’95). This is the opening paragraph of CWU Letter to Branches LTB628/12, and as such highlights the continued attack on health and safety at work protection by this Tory-led Con-Dem(ned) coalition government.
Dave’s letter to CWU branches goes into great detail about RIDDOR and the also provides background to the issues surrounding the requirement to report injuries, dangerous occurrences and disease in the workplace. LTB628/12 continues: ‘The review is part of HSE’s programme to make it easier for businesses and other users to understand what they need to do to comply with health and safety law, following recommendations made in Professor Löfstedt’s independent review of health and safety legislation. The proposals also seek to implement the changes recommended in the 2010 Government Report, ‘Common Sense, Common Safety’, by re-examining whether RIDDOR is the best approach to providing an accurate national picture of workplace accidents.’ Details of the background to the consultation then follows: ‘This is the second Consultation conducted by the HSE on proposed amendments to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)1995. The consultation is on a package of wider changes to RIDDOR and follows injury reporting changes which took effect in April.
Branches will recall our response to Consultation Document CD233 published in LTB 432 /11 on 4 May 2011 when CWU strongly opposed the changes proposed by Lord Young in his report "Common Sense, Common Safety" which the HSE were under instruction to implement. CWU saw no justifiable good reason to change the period of incapacitation after which an injury to a person at work must be reported to the enforcing authority from over three to over seven days which will further complicate the process rather than simplify it. Further to this CWU made it clear that in our view there is an urgent need for the HSE to address the issues as identified by the HSE in the 2005 RIDDOR Consultation in respect of the enforcement of the Regulations.’ Dave’s LTB628/12 then gives some further information with regard to the effects being proposed to RIDDOR: ‘As expected, the spending cuts and government attacks on health and safety protection for our members at work continue with what is a dramatic proposed revision of the legal system for reporting workplace injuries, dangerous occurrences and diseases from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE's consultation document will mean an end to the current duty under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995 to report conditions including certain strain injuries, poisonings, vibration diseases, dermatitis and occupational cancers, dust diseases and asthma. Only the much rarer work-related biological diseases, including Q fever, rabies and Legionnaires' disease, would remain reportable. HSE is also proposing that self-employed people no longer having to report injuries or illness to themselves, and the removal of both the duty on employers to report dangerous occurrences outside of high risk sectors activities (including Royal Mail BT and other communications industry companies employing CWU members). The need to report all fatal injuries to workers and those to members of the public as a result of a work activity would remain, as would the duty to report major injuries to workers.
Little useful data at all looks to be the result of the proposals if they remain unchanged and are implemented.’ The LTB concludes by advising of the next step and encourages all CWU Safety Reps to respond to the consultation exercise: ‘The TUC Union Health and Safety Specialists Committee (of which Dave Joyce is a member) will be meeting to consider the proposals in detail and a detailed response will be made by the Health, Safety & Environment Department in due course. CWU Safety Reps are encouraged to ensure a good response to the CD. A copy of the Consultation Document CD243 can be downloaded here, with the standard Reply Form available to download here. An online questionnaire response form is also available from the HSE website here This consultation began on 2 August 2012 and ends on 28 October 2012. Responses should be sent to:- Dave Charnock The full LTB628/12 can be downloaded here Source: CWU |
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Readers of this website will remember that some 3 years ago, Dave Joyce, CWU’s National Health, Safety & Environment Officer; warned of David Cameron’s aim to destroy the UK’s health and safety legislation and in doing so, turn this country's working environment into a mirror image of that of the USA, where minimal workplace protection exists.
