Posted By Raymond Rapp
Kim

The question is a bit vague but I would suggest that for most internal accidents it should be reported immediately. There may be the odd occassion where it is not practicable, however most accidents and incidents should be investigated as soon as possible ie while the evidence is still fresh.

Ray

Posted By Kim Brown
Thanks guys, the bottom line is we have a situation where an employee says he had an accident over a month ago but there is no record of it being passed to us to enable us to a, complete the accident book, b, investigate it and c, inform RIDDOR. As the individual was signed off from work by a Doctor the first we heard as a company was when the employee didn't agree with his pay as it had been reduced in accordance with company procedure.

He is now seeking grievance as he states he reported the accident to the company.

So that is why I would like to know if there was any more by way of 'best practice'in terms of time frame for reporting accidents at work.

Posted By Martin Taylor
You will need to look at the account that this has been reported to the company - clearly it hasn't been reported in the accident book so who does the individual claim has been informed.
Had the individual recieved training to report ALL accidents as soon as they happen.

If they have and you can demonstrate this and their account of having reported te accident can be reasonably refuted then the accident can be reasonably discounted as not work related.

The lesson here is to make sure that ALL employees understand the need to report accidents immediately to allow for a proper investigation to be undertaken. This will avoid these kind of incidents from biting you

Martin