Posted By Nigel Hammond An employee has just returned to work after two weeks off-work with sciatica. She says it was caused by a manual handling incident that happened over six weeks ago. She did not report the incident at the time. There were also no witnesses to the event. Should we report this to the HSE under RIDDOR? If so, would we be potentially admitting liability for something that may not be work- related? Any views welcome, many thanks, Nigel

Posted By ian milne Suggest you seek guidance from HSE /contact centre mentioning the facts on what you already know. Draw up your accident report and investigate it throughly. Seek permission to approach their doctor, in writing by the company's appointed medical practicioner. You would not like to see them doing work that is inappropriate for their injury, would you. Documents save problems in future. Maybe I've been down this path a few times before. Ian

Posted By Michael McBride This happens regularly where I work. Our rules state that an accident form should be recieved within 72 hours. If the accident is reported late we place a note for case within the the accident file with the reason for the tardiness. The individual is also told. Mick

Posted By Nigel Hammond Many thanks for all your helpful replies.

Posted By TBC Your right Jayne - It should be 'late' reported for possible 'claims culture' defence. The HSE or EHO's are used to this sort of thing and wouldn't usually even follow it up.

Posted By A. Fergusson I would agree that it is better to report 'just in case' but I would question the point in asking the team who record the accidents in Caerphilly, they are employed by National Britannia and so would be unable to give advice.

Posted By Jerry Lucey I would investigate this accident fully as the fact that it was reported late will not prevent this individual from taking an action. I have found that the fact that they have not complied with your company policy seems to count for very little if it goes to court in a few years time. It is important to report to the H.S.E/ E.H.O. as in the event of an action it is good to be seen to have been proactive and it will not be seen as admitting liability. A report/ injured party's witness statement of the incident may prove useful on file, especially if the claim is fraudulent it may not have been properly thought through and easier to expose with a signed statement. Some very valid points were raised regarding the investigation and recording leisure activities, especially if these activities could foreseeably have caused the injury. It is very difficult however to prove a link between the leisure activity and the injury if there is not a record somewhere of an incident. I have come across a situation where someone engaged in sports. In this situation we contacted the club they were a member of to check if they had recorded any incident. I would however, not take this step until an action is taken by the injured party. It would be worth having this individual attend your company physician. I would however restrict all correspondance to between your company physician and your employee's GP. I have found that a call from one physician to another is far more effective as your company Physician querying a diagnosis is going to meet with a better re-action. Many company physicians obtain written permission to contact the person's GP as a matter of course now. Hope this helps. Please feel free to contact me direct if I can help further.