The reporting of certain work related accidents, diseases and dangerous  occurrences is a legal requirement and the information allows the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Local Authority to identify where and how risks arise and to investigate serious accidents.  With this information the HSE and Local Authority can then give employers or others concerned advice on how to reduce injury, ill health and accidental loss.

Reporting Accidents, Illnesses or Dangerous Occurrences

You must make a Report if there is an accident, disease or dangerous occurrence connected with work and it involves:

• Death or Major Injury - of an employee or self employed person
• A member of public being killed or taken to hospital
• An Over-three-day Injury - of an employee or self-employed person which results in the injured person being away from work or unable to do the full range of their normal duties for more than three days
• A Notifiable Disease - if a doctor notifies you that your employee suffers from a reportable work-related disease
• A Dangerous Occurrence - which does not result in an injury, but may have done

A list of all Major Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences can be found in the HSE publication A Guide to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regs 1995. L73 from the HSE.

You can report incidents in a variety of ways:

a) To the Incident Contact Centre via:

Telephone on 0845 300 9923 (local call rate),

Fax on 0845 300 9924,

Email the Riddor Team

Via the Riddor website

Post to: Incident Contact Centre, Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly, CF83 3GG

Reports to the Incident Contact Centre are then passed to the relevant enforcing authority.

b) To Ashford Borough Council:

Directly by telephone on 01233 330517 or 01233 330470; or fax 01233 330469 and

Then by post on Form 25087 or 2508A to: Environmental Services, Ashford Borough Council, Tannery Lane, Ashford, Kent  TN23 1PL

The Reporting Forms can be downloaded from the HSE website.

Reporting Out of Hours

The HSE and local authority enforcement officers are not an emergency service. You should contact your enforcing authority out of hours in the following circumstances:

• Fatal accidents at work
• Accidents where several workers have been seriously injured
• Accidents resulting in serious injury to a member of the public
• Accidents and incidents causing major disruption, such as evacuation of people, closure of roads, large numbers of people going to hospital

More information on when, and how, to report very serious or dangerous incidents, can be found by visiting the HSE out of hours webpage.

Ashford Borough Council can be contacted on 01233 629911.

If you want to report less serious incidents out of normal working hours, you can always complete the online form or by using the Email Forms.

What happens once the Council receives an Accident Report?

If we are the enforcing body then we investigate the accident. If not then we refer it to the relevant Enforcement Authority.  The Investigating Officer will collect any relevant information relating to the incident.  An investigation may take several weeks and will involve the Investigating Officer contacting employers, manufacturers, witnesses or any other relevant party involved to gain a full picture of the incident.  Once all the evidence and information has been gathered, then the Officer will decide the most appropriate course of action as determined by their findings, Health & Safety Legislation and the Councils Enforcement Policy.