Posted By Graham Bullough You might cause some confusion with your request because most readers probably associate the acronym "RIDDOR" with the process of notifying HSE about the types of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences which the relevant regulations require to be reported. However, as your request mentions investigation and reporting procedures, you evidently use it as an acronym for dealing with all incidents, etc. within your organisation - of which notification to HSE forms only a part when applicable. In relation to directly notifying HSE, there are 3 ways of doing so to the HSE Contact Centre at Caerphilly in South Wales: by telephone, by the internet, and by fax (local call rate). Of these methods I strongly advise the fax method where feasible because it is generally the quickest and simplest. If you telephone the Centre I gather that you spend ages talking to a clerical officer who chooses categories from a computer screen and ultimately generates a multi-page copy of form 2508 which is then posted to you for checking. The internet version involves you doing the same as the clerical officer and still generates more paper than the normal 2 sided version of Form 2508. The fax version combines immediate notification (when it is required) and the provision of the Form 2508 information - which you could otherwise do by post within 10 days. Just keep a note of when you sent the fax on your copy of the 2 sides of the Form 2508 and then get on with other work! Hope this helps you and others with this aspect of reporting to HSE.

Posted By Graham Bullough Greg - sorry if we seem to be deviating from the main gist of your request. However, Ian's response was useful in letting us know that HSE will accept improved electronic versions of form 2508. Probably most of us consider the officially available electronic version to be poor and user-unfriendly. This begs the question of whether HSE is thinking about or could be persuaded to consider Ian's version (and any other versions)as a model for improving their version, so that notifiers can have the benefits of using e-mail without the current disadvantages. Sadly, from experience, it appears that too many people who "design" forms never think about those who have to complete them, e.g. by getting others to try out pilot versions and make critical but constructive comments where appropriate.