Posted By AlanB This is a problem that we have had at our place of work. We have had a person coming into work, only to report he had suffered an injury at work the previous day and would like to record the incident. The employee had ample time to report the incident the day before. He said there were no witnesses, and that didn't feel the incident was important enough to report the previous day. We had highlighted many a time prior to this incident that all accidents and incidents, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, must be reported,on the day of the incident, to the Supervisor or Manager. Incidents reported the following day or later would not be recognised by the company. As it turned out, this chap had not been injured at work, but had picked up his injury playing 5 a side football the evening before, and was after the opportunity to make a claim against the company. Had the company a different policy of accepting reports of incidents other than at the time of occurrence, then we wopuld be looking at a potential claim. We have our procedure in place to protect the company. We ensure that there is always an opportunity for all incidents to be reported on the day of occurrence. Any reports after that are not recognised. It is a difficult situation to be in, but if you have a policy ikn place, then stick to it. If not, look at the pros and cons of accepting "late" accident reports, and then make your policy. Alan

Posted By Linda Westrupp Peter I think you'll find that the current Accident Book states quite clearly that an accident can be entered at any time and there is no time limit. Anyone who has had a form from Social Security on behalf of an employee claiming Industrial Injury Benefit will have had a note attached telling them this. In deciding whether to award Industrial Injury Benefit they use the accident book entry and the answers given by the employer to a set of questions. Unless there is strong evidence that an injury was not caused at work, even if it was not reported at the time, they are likelyto record it as an Industrial Injury. I would therefore consider a non-recognition unless reported immediately policy as untenable and that it would probably not stand up in a court case, either for criminal proceedings or in a claims case. While you may decide not to record an incident in your stats if it appears suspect, you cannot prevent an employee making an entry in the on-site accident book (BI 510), even if it a year late! You also would need to report it to HSE once you were informed as they may well take a dim view of employers choosing to disregard incidents. Linda