Posted By rjhills Perhaps you should ask whether your new company has an accident reporting procedure. If not, can I recommend that you obtain the document HSG245 (Investigating accidents and incidents) its ISBN Number is 0-7176-2827-2 Also, it would seem pertinent to enquire what the corporate view of H&S is within the organisation. You say it was a minor accident, but I suspect management interest in investigating it would have faded since January had it been a slight cut!!! Does the company not have recorded accident reporting? Are they expecting you to start one for them? If they do not have procedures for reporting accidents they may not have other procedures also. My advice would be to talk to the person who was managing things when the said accident occurred to get all the background info. to be had. Also speak to the victim, and anyone who witnessed this "minor accident". Before doing anything, obtain all pertinent facts, and discuss with the persons who want you to carry out this investigation their take on things. another small consideration:if your job description includes responsibility for investigating accidents, and as you appear not to have done them before, then joining a local IOSH Safety Group will not go amiss. Also, if you are to carry out acc investigations, form a team so that other opinions re engineering/production/safety rep etc are involved. I hope this has helped, and if you need any further help just aask.

Posted By George Wedgwood Certainly fair! Maybe not 'just' but I can see the point of your word here. The Manager has the responsibility, and that means for everything he does as acting in the company's 'mind' - so that also means he should be very interested in what goes wrong to examine the losses! After all if your production broke down, would you not be expected to produce a report on why? Any loss is important but human loss, be it a cut wasting several hours and £37 in treatment and time, or a major injury costing several £thousand, is important. So start with the basic process and it will get easier with a little practice - and you will learn a lot! Then you can delegate after a little training, to someone else, helping to create an interest in safety in the workplace. Soon no injuries will occur as everyone will be safety aware, trained and alert to hazards. There, it's easy! George

Posted By Stephen D. Clarke Hi, I've found the Thomson - Gee book and CD Accident Management and Investigation to be really helpful and reasonably priced.