Health and safety regulations updated
Legal update
As a director it’s your responsibility to ensure that your company and its employees are aware of and follow the health and safety rules. If you don’t and something goes wrong, you could face a personal and potentially unlimited fine. So it’s vital you know about recent changes to the accident reporting and asbestos regulations.
New law
On April 6, the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR), the law that governs which accidents and incidents must be reported, was changed. These Regulations require employers to report workplace fatalities, major injuries, such as broken bones, occupational illnesses and some lost-time accidents.
What’s changed?
Until the April 6 deadline, employers had a duty to report accidents which resulted in an individual being incapacitated and unable to work for a period in excess of three days. This period has now been extended to seven days. The updated guidance produced by the HSE states that employers: “only have to report injuries that lead to a worker being incapacitated 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)”. Another change is that you previously had ten days in which to report the incident; this has been increased to 15 days.
Tip. If you have a member staff that’s incapacitated for more than seven days, you must report the injury - failing to do so is a criminal offence. You should make your report using the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE’s) online reporting system (see The next step).
Asbestos legislation
Another change brought in by the HSE is an update to the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006. These have been replaced with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
What’s new?
In practice, the changes are fairly limited. The most significant update is the addition of a third category of asbestos work to the existing two. The new category is “notifiable non-licensed work”. The others are non-licensable and licensable work - each one relates to the extent of work being completed.
Tip. This is really a change that only affects those who work with asbestos on a regular basis. If you manage a property, you don’t need to do anything.
What didn’t happen?
The HSE was working on plans that would allow it to charge companies for its inspectors’ time. However, this new law wasn’t approved by Parliament. However, the plans haven’t been shelved altogether, so we’ll keep you informed of how they are progressing.
For a link to the HSE’s online RIDDOR reporting website, visit http://companydirector.indicator.co.uk (CD 13.15.03).
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