Posted By Andrew V I work for a retail company and have been asked by an employee for a copy of the accident book entry detailing an accident that she had at work approximately two months ago. I believe that the only reason she wants a copy is to enable her to make a claim against us. Can I refuse to provide a copy of the accident report on the basis that it would be an infringement of the Data Protection Act? Any help would be appreciated.

Posted By Jonathan Breeze As I understand it, the data that requires protection is the name and address of the employee in question. Previously this data was in the public domain, anyone could access the Accident Book by law and thereby obtain the details of those who had reported an accident. This is no longer allowed. However I do not see a problem with the person who actually had the accident seeing the details of their own accident. As I understand it, to try and use the DPA as a reason to block this would be a gross mis-application of the law similar to what happened recently in the Soham murder case. That's just a gut feel by the way, not legal advice - I could well be talking out of my hat.

Posted By Karen Todd Andrew, I once had a similar request, checked with HR, gave the employee a copy of their entry in the accident book and their statement of events and a few days later got a letter of intent to claim. You may as well just give it to this person, because my understanding is that their solicitor can request a copy of it anyway. Regards, Karen

Posted By John Johnston I am currently pursuing a Civil Liability claim against my old workplace. My solicitor showed me just yesterday, a letter from the insurance company, this letter had a copy of the accident book entry. From this, I can only assume that the solicitor at least can obtain a copy. Hope this helps.

Posted By John Murgatroyd In most cases, the employee can ask to see any information you hold about him/her either in data OR textual form. That is in the DPA. The new accident book (which you should be using by now) enables details of the accident and personal details to be recorded seperately. In any case, the solicitor who may be handling the case, will write to you for dsetails of your insurance company and the accident. You could always refuse, but it'll do you no good and just cost more in the end. Funny that, my employer did just what you're thinking of doing now...refusing details...and it ended by costing them 15000 quid instead of 3500.

Posted By John Murgatroyd If you only put bland details in the accident report and omit anything that could be used against the company, you're in the clear. Better still, just "forget" to enter anything at all. Then you'll have an very good accident record and may even get a "good safety gold award" from your H&S consultancy. Find a good reason to lose the employee as well, then the others will get the message.

Posted By Ian stevenson TechSP Andrew I hope the reply of Mr. Murgatroyd was intended as a joke, or I would hope to never see him in a workplace of mine. Perhaps you should do an accident investigation, find the root cause and put in a safe system of work to eliminate this acciden happening again and avoid future accident claims. regards Ian

Posted By John Murgatroyd Joke ? Well, partly. Not funny, but ironic. I've lived with the "employee" part of H&S for so long, I drop into the part so easily. Maybe you should get a job with a small company ? Not so much H&S there. The "federation of small business" wants the gov to "reduce red tape" and "end the scandal of employers being sued by no-win-no-fee solicitors for trifling accidents" As for the accident book bit...been there, had that done. It goes on all the time....bullying employees to get them to drop cases...intimidation and verbal abuse....

Posted By Andrew V Thanks very much for all of the replies. Some interesting points of view indeed. I'll take the advice on board. Regards, Andrew.