Unfortunately things do, occasionally, go wrong at work and it is important to deal with the events following an incident in the specified manner.

You must record the details of incidents in your accident book. A new version of the accident book has recently been introduced to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Businesses must change their accident book to comply with the Act by 31 December 2003. The new publication, the HSE Accident Book (BI510) is available from HSE Books (see http://www.hsebooks.co.uk/pubf.html?4313 ).

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) require deaths or major injuries, over three days injuries, certain diseases and certain dangerous occurrences to be reported to the relevant enforcing authority, either the Environmental Health Department of your Local Authority or HSE (if you are not sure which consult the A-Z list of enforcement allocation at http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/23-15.htm ).

Alternatively, accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences may be reported to the Incident Contact Centre. The Centre was established on 1 April, 2001, as a single point of contact for receiving all incidents in the UK.

You can report incidents by any of the following routes:

Telephone - 0845 3009923 (available Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 5.00pm)

Internet - www.riddor.gov.uk

Form - by completing the relevant hard copy form and sending:
By fax - 0845 3009924
By post to:
Incident Contact Centre
Caerphilly Business Centre
Caerphilly Business Park
Caerphilly
CF83 3GG

You can still report directly to your local HSE Office or Local Authority by completing and sending the hard copy form. These are:

* F2508 - Report of an injury or dangerous occurrence
(download a Word template of this document here)
* F2508a - Report of a case of disease
These reports will be forwarded to the ICC for processing