Posted By Richard Could someone please explain to a simple old engineer why stress should not be reportable under RIDDOR? It is surely just as much a work related illness as dermatitis or asbestos related conditions, and is nearly always caused by a clear and foreseeable breach of HASAWA, even if only the good old "duty of care". According to some statistics is the biggest "time off" illness (but where do they get the data from?), and yet it is largely unrecorded. Richard

Posted By Alistair Forsyth Open the can of worms - as I disagree. Granted that stress can be caused by a wide range of factors (some more definable than others), but the HSW Act 1974 relates to protecting from injury to a person's physical and mental health. Therefore, if someone had more than 3 days off due to stress, distress, etc that was clearly linked to an incident at work, then it would be reportable under RIDDOR. In a past job, I have reported such an incident to the HSE. Please note that these views are based on my own experience and are not necessarily representative of the Learning and Skills Council.

Posted By Eddie Newall I can only reiterate that stress is not an illness. In my opinion it is a hazard since it has the potential to cause harm. It can certainly result in ill-health and accidents. Therefore it is an important health & safety issue. As for reporting stress-related illness or injury under RIDDOR there is nothing to stop anyone doing so. But the question remains: is stress-related illness/injury reportable under RIDDOR?

Posted By Jay Joshi Stress is not reportable under RIDDOR. Under RIDDOR one has to report INJURIES caused by ACCIDENTS i.e. the fatal, major & over 3 day ones. Stress is not an INJURY caused by an ACCIDENT, therefore cannot be considered for over 3-day reporting. Refer to Regulation 3(2) of RIDDOR 95. It states.... BECAUSE OF AN INJURY RESULTING FROM AN ACCIDENT ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH WORK ....... In the context of REPORTABLE DISEASES, all diseases reportable under RIDDOR have very clear links with work and are actual physiological conditions that can be detected medically. Stress is essentially a psychological condition and can be due to a complex set of factors, both work-related & personal ones. Also, the diseases are listed in the schedule. In addition, the RIDDOR reportable diseases list is closely identical to the list of prescribed diseases for Industrial Disease benefits under the various Industrial Injuries Prescribed Diseases Regulations. Until there are more robust methods of determining whether stress is work-related or not, it is not a practical proposition to consider stress as RIDDDOR reportable disease/illness. That is why the results of the HSC discussion document on Managing Stress in the Workplace in 1999 did not conclusively provide the explicit regulation or ACoP route for Stress in the Workplace, but commissioning of research on this complex subject. It is possible that if some robust/reliable and widely acceptable methods of determining work related-stress are compiled, then stress may in the future become reportable when RIDDOR 95 is either amended or completely reviewed.

Posted By Eddie Newall HSE guidance at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/stresspk.htm