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Proposed New Investigation Criteria
Back to main page on 'Investigation Criteria'
New investigation criteria have been piloted in HSE's North West region since July 2004. It is
set out in full below.

If you would like to read how the current and piloted criteria differ from each other, click here.


INVESTIGATION OF INCIDENT NOTIFICATIONS
REVISED SELECTION CRITERIA
(Except gas incidents reported under RIDDOR reg 6(1) and 6(2))

"The main purpose of our investigations is to determine cause and identify the appropriate action to prevent recurrence and deal with breaches of the law.

These selection criteria are intended to concentrate investigation effort on incidents which had the greatest potential for harm and are likely to have involved a serious breach of health and safety law.

The following incidents should be selected for investigation subject to the disqualification criteria in paragraph 6 below.

Fatalities
1 All fatalities, whether RIDDOR reportable or not, as a result of an incident arising out of or in connection with work activities. This specifically excludes suicides, deaths from natural causes, and work-related road traffic incidents where HSE has no investigation role (see OM 2000/124).

Major injuries
2 The following major injuries to all persons, including non-employees, irrespective of cause:
(1) all amputations of digit(s) past the first joint where the incident involved potential for more than one finger or for hand/arm amputation;
(2) amputation of hand/arm or foot/leg;
(3) crush injuries leading to serious multiple fractures (more than one bone, not including wrist or ankle), or internal organ damage, e.g. ruptured spleen;
(4) head injuries involving loss of consciousness;
(5) burns and scalds covering more than 10% of the surface area of the body;
(6) permanent blinding of one or both eyes;
(7) asphyxiations.
  Incidents that result in a RIDDOR-defined major injury in the following categories:
(1) workplace transport incidents;
(2) falls from a height of greater than 2 metres;
(3) manual handling incidents resulting in sprains and strains and requiring admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours;
(4) electrical shock or burnleading to unconsciousness, requiring resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours.

Occupational diseases
4 All reports of cases of occupational disease that meet the criteria of reportability under RIDDOR, except those arising from circumstances/situations which have already been investigated.

Serious public concern
5 All incidents likely to give rise to serious public concern. This reflects the views of the public at large not just those of an individual. Give particular consideration to incidents involving children, vulnerable adults, and multiple casualties where the outcome or potential outcome or breach is serious.
6 Dangerous occurrences with the potential for directly causing the deaths of or major injuries to a number of people, or a large number of cases of occupational disease, severe human infection or illness.

Disqualification criteria
7 Any of the following circumstances will disqualify the incidents and diseases in paragraphs 2-4 above from investigation. Circumstances 2 and 5 below will not disqualify incidents likely to give rise to serious public concern or with the potential for the outcomes in paragraphs 5 and 6 above.

(a) inadequate resources or other developing priorities prevent investigation - in this circumstance the incident must be referred to the Head of Operations;
(b) the related breach of health and safety law is unlikely to have been serious. (ie. where the Enforcement Management Model national enforcement expectation would not determine a notice or a prosecution);
(c) no reasonably practicable precautions available for risk reduction;
(d) investigation is impracticable (e.g. witnesses or evidence are unavailable, or disproportionate effort would be required to obtain them);
(e) investigation is unlikely to achieve results (e.g.. significantly improve, or secure sustained compliance);
(f) incidents of non-fatal injuries in paragraphs 2 and 3 or occupational diseases to members of the public, and where any of the following apply:
- HSW Act Section 3 cannot be applied;
- there is another agency with adequate enforcement powers to deal with the incident;
- the incident does not involve a topic or sector falling within one or more of the HSC Priority Programmes.

 

The differences between the two sets of criteria are set out below.

At present, the criteria divides reportable incidents into two types: those incidents that should be investigated - deaths and certain kinds of major injuries - and those incidents for which HSE inspectors have a discretion about whether or not to investigate (depending upon how serious they are..

The piloted document does not allow for any disrection on the part of inspectors. There is only has one category of incident - those that are required to be investigated (unless they fall within certain 'disqualifying' criteria.)

The piloted instructions, therefore, do not allow inspectors to investigate an injury or incident which falls outside the specified criteria but which in their view, for example are "likely to have been a serious breach of health and safety law".

  In relation to deaths, the current criteria state that the HSE will only investigate 'reportable deaths'. The piloted criteria s say that even those that are not reportable should be investigated, as long as they are the result of an incident arising out of or in connection with work activities
a number of categories of injuries which would currenly require investiation, would no longer do so:
- At present, "all amputations of digit(s) past the first joint" need to be investigated.

the piloted criteria say that only those amputations of digits past the first joint "where the incident involved potential for more than one finger or for hand/arm amputation" need to be investigated;
- At present all "serious multiple fractures (more than one bone, not including wrist or ankle" from whatever cause need to be investigated.

the piloted criteria say that it will only be necessary to investigate such injuries if they result from a "crush injury" or they are associated with "workplace transport" or "falls from height".
- At present all "scalpings" have to be investigated. Under piloted Criteria, scalpings would no longer require investigation.
- At present it is necessary to investigate "any incident which arose out of working in a confined space". Under the piloted criteria this would no longer be necessary unless it resulted in 'asphxiation' or other categories of injuries that requires investigation.
  There are a number of new categories of reported incidents that under the new criteria would require investigation:
- any "manual handling incidents resulting in sprains and strains and requiring admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours" will now be required to be investigated.
- dangerous occurrences with the potential for directly causing a number of deaths or major injuries or a large number of cases of occupational disease, severe human infection or illness.
  There is a new set of 'disqualifying' conditions in the .

If any of the following conditions apply in relation to any of the incidents that require investigation, there will no longer be a requirement on the part of an inspector to investigate the incident.

These are as follows:
- if there are "no reasonably practicable precautions available for risk reduction"
- if the "investigation is unlikely to achieve results (e.g. significantly improve, or secure sustained compliance)"
- if it is a "work-related road traffic incident where HSE has no investigation role as set out in the document "OM 2000/124"

In addition, if there has been an injury or occupational disease suffered by a member of the public, then an inspector will no longer be required to investigate the incident in the following circumstances:

- if Section 3 of the HSW Act cannot be applied;
- if there is another agency with adequate enforcement powers to deal with the incident;
- if the incident does not involve a topic or sector falling within one or more of the HSC Priority Programmes.

In addition, apart from where the incident is "likely to give rise to serious public concern" or where there has been a ‘dangerous occurrence with the potential for causing a number of deaths or major injuries, then an incident will be disqualified from investigation if either:

- "the related breach of health and safety law is unlikely to have been serious. (ie. where the Enforcement Management Model national enforcement expectation would not determine a notice or a prosecution);
- investigation is unlikely to achieve results (e.g.. significantly improve, or secure sustained compliance);"

In addition, if there are "inadequate resources or other developing priorities" that "prevent investigation" the incident must be "referred to the Head of Operations" for him or her to decide whether or not to investigate.

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Page last updated on December 11, 2004