Hi Everyone, Its been a long time since i've been on here but i need some friendly advice! I'm currently doing an FM role in Coventry and one of the departments have been getting bitten. I have contacted the pest control company who will attend site on Wednesday. There have been 4 people bitten in that department and the manager has been logging them in the accident book. Should he be doing this because although its happening at works it's not actually an accident! I called the HSE on this and they were as clear as mud! Thanks :-)

I would be inclined to record them. They can lead to infection caused at the workplace as stated above. Accident forms are a trigger for benefit claims though this would be an unlikely consequence.

At my last company we recorded bites, mostly from flying insects. One case we reported as a RIDDOR because the IP had to be taken to hospital and was away from work for a week due to a very severe allergic re-action. I am sure others can come up with arguments against recording bites but we recorded more to establish trends and see if there really was a problem. In the end we established that there was a small problem (5 stings over a six month "summer" period with one adverse reaction) but not as large as the workforce perceived. Simple control measures were agreed and put in place rather than the 80k solution that the workforce originally wanted. So recording bites work for the company and eased the worries of the workforce. Take Care