What must be reported?

Events that lead to the death or injury to an employee of a dutyholder covered by these Regulations should be reported to HSE under RIDDOR only.

Deaths and injuries to members of the public that are attributable in whole or in part to the generating, transforming, control or carrying of energy up to and including the supply terminals are reportable by dutyholders to HSE.

Examples of events that must be reported under this regulation include those resulting in the death of or injury to someone who is not an employee of the generator, distributor or meter operator and are:

• caused directly or indirectly by contact, whether accidental or deliberate, with live electrical conductors eg a member of the public receives electric shock or fatal injuries when a raised part of the plant they are operating makes contact with an overhead line
• caused directly or indirectly by or resulting from the release, discharge or escape of flame, arc, arc products, gas or energy from electrical conductors or plant, eg a member of the public receives burns after energy is released above ground following the failure of an underground link box or pit
• caused by impact or contact with a support (eg a tower or pole) or a building or structure, eg a road traffic accident in which the occupants of the vehicle suffer fatal injuries when their vehicle collides with a pole
• caused by falling, deliberately or accidentally, from a support, building or structure, or, into an excavation
• caused by the failure or collapse of any non-electrical part of the dutyholders operational electricity supply system or works – eg the collapse of a substation wall, cable trench or substation fencing, tower or wind turbine
• that occur on domestic, commercial or industrial installations as a direct result of an event of a dutyholder. Events such as these shall be reported by the dutyholder responsible for equipment directly involved in the event. eg A member of the public receives an electric shock from a domestic wiring installation which has become live as a direct result of the loss of a neutral connection on a distributor's system, or a member of the public dies as a result of a fire originated by the distributor's service cut-out.

Immediately after the duty holder becomes aware, all deaths and serious injuries (ie where a member of the public is admitted to hospital as an in patient) must be reported by telephone to the Incident Contact Centre on 0345 300 9923 (opening hours Monday to Friday 8.30 am to 5 pm).

Domestic fatalities attributed to electrical equipment eg a fatality due to a person rewiring their house or with an appliance that has not been isolated from the supply must be reported to BIS. Other examples include electrocution including intentional acts, or form fires and explosions arising from or alleged to have arisen from a fault on the customer's equipment or wiring.

Dutyholders are only expected to report such incidents where they have knowledge of the occurrence of the event or the facts of the event.

Any fire, explosion or implosion where there is a significant risk of death or injury to members of the public must be reported. This would include events that breach or significantly damage any containment surrounding the electrical equipment or conductor eg:

• the explosion of electrical equipment such as an insulator that results in the scattering of debris
• explosion or fire in an underground link box
• a large substation fire

Events that have been caused by a fire of a third party (equipment or premises) and that results in damage to the duty holder's equipment are not reportable.

Any event which leads to an overhead line being below statutory height, eg a line brought down during a storm should be reported. Any event that gives rise to a significant risk of death must be notified.

Examples of events that involve significant risk of death include:

• lines below statutory height over roads
• lines below statutory height over commercial or domestic premises and associated surrounds (eg car park, school field)
• lines below statutory height where people are known to be present eg field used for an event or camping site when the activity is taking place

This requirement is targeted at interruptions of supply due to faults, accidents or other unplanned events. Duty holders need not report deliberate discontinuation of supplies carried out under Regulation 29 Discontinuation of supplies.

With the exception of the references to distributors and the minimum duration of interruption (now 3 minutes – paragraph 32(1)(a)), dutyholders should note that this regulation is virtually unchanged from the equivalent regulation in the Electricity Supply Regulations 1988 as amended (regulation 35 Notification of supply failure).

• Any single interruption of supply, to any demand of 20 megawatts or more at the time of the interruption, for a period of three minutes or longer.
• Any single interruption of supply, to any demand of 5 megawatts or more at the time of the interruption for a period of one hour or longer.
• Any single interruption of supply to 5,000 or more consumer's installations for a period of one hour or longer.

Examples of other events that should be reported to HSE include:

• any short circuit or overload which gives rise to damage such as that there is easy access to the electrical circuits or conductors for employees, members of the public or the emergency services
• any event that results in the death of one or more domestic pet(s) or any livestock (as this would indicate the existence of potential current flow sufficient to kill a person)
• any event in which the physical integrity or security of electrical line (eg generating plant, overhead lines, street pillars, link boxes, substation fences, walls and enclosures) is compromised such that live conductors are exposed permitting access by members of the public
• any contact with live conductors by persons, plant or equipment used by members of the public
• events where the failure of a PME neutral causes a rise in voltage above statutory limits
• discovery of reverse polarity on customer's premises or street furniture where the error is found to be located in connections under the control of a duty holder
• partial or complete collapse of structures including buildings and wind turbines
• unauthorised access to any high voltage equipment including substations
• theft or attempted theft of operational apparatus eg the removal of earth conductor from a pole or in a ground-mounted type substation. Note that the theft or attempted theft of plant (eg a cable drum) from a depot is not reportable.