Posted By Malcolm Hogarth I am looking for guidance on the requirement (if any) to record accidents to visitors. There was a previous thread on the forum where Pat Hannaway commented "don't forget to record this in your accident book . The new book requires you to; record any accidents involving visitors or members of the public on your premises. If the casualty has to be taken to hospital, you must also report the incident to the appropriate authority". The latter part of this comment I agree with as it is the RIDDOR requirement, but I am puzzled over the reference to the recording accidents to visitors in the BI 510 as my understanding is that this is a Social Security requirement in respect of employees only. My thoughts are that a separate form would be appropriate, along with an accident investigation procedure. What do you think? Malcolm

Posted By Paul Duell You could use a separate form / book for recording accidents to visitors - but why give yourself the extra paperwork? If everyone knows that every accident goes in the same book, it keeps it simple. My experience - as a first aider as well as an H&S manager - is that the less first aiders have to think about, the more likely they are to get it right!

Posted By Sean Fraser Solicitors - when are they going to learn that the recording of incidents is not immediate acceptance of liability but simply acknowledgement of an event, preparatory to investigation and determination of causes? And that recording all incidents allows us to identify adverse trends and take effective action to prevent them continuing - taking the longer term view. This short sightedness in dealing only with the here & now blights our society as it creates a climate of fear and deception, making things more likely to happen, not the other way round. Oh, I see it . . . that's their aim after all! Keeps them in work and off the streets I suppose. In response to the question - there is no moral or ethical justification to not recording such incidents, and using the existing method is as good as any. Creating a new format is only an attempt to obfuscate the real issue - an incident has taken place and we are duty bound to investigate and where possible take action to prevent recurrence. As has been mentioned, creating one system for one and a different one for another simply confuses the issue and so is unlikely to be used. Lets be practical about these things and forget the legal eagles - unless they happen to represent your insurer . . .?

Posted By J Knight Malcolm, What's an 'alleged' accident? If you mean a report of an accident for which there is no direct evidence (e.g. I hurt my back in the shop but I didn't say anything until I got home and it still hurt) then phrase your accident report accordingly. If the outcome is attested (e.g. you can see the blood) but the causation is in doubt, then again word you report accordingly; 'the victim stated that he/she fell over but I didn't see it' and in both cases investigate. None of this is an admission of liability, and both types of report can go in the BI510. We do it for customers in our shops and have done so for years without complications, John

Posted By Pat Hannaway Hi Malcolm, the comment that I made in my original posting regarding reporting of accident to visitors was a straight quote from the 2003 Edition of the accident book. The requirement to record accidents to visitors is not optional. It does not matter if you use a different book for visitors than that used by employees. To quote again from the book, the completed page must be detached "and passed to the person responsible for storing Accident Book records". Because of Data Protection requirements, the records "must not be seen by other members of staff (except the employee's own manager and the person responsible for health and safety in your workplace). You must also keep them separately from absence records, and disclose them only where there is a legal obligation to do so".

Posted By Dave Wilson You don't even have to use this book you can make your own as long as what you do contains the same details etc