RR984 - Research to explore the effect of post 'Common Sense, Common Safety' amendment to RIDDOR Regulation 3(2) on Health and Safety Standards in Great Britain
This report examines employers' perceptions of the change in RIDDOR reporting requirements, and explores its perceived influence on employers' behaviours and the management of health and safety. Forty telephone interviews were conducted with employers across the manufacturing, construction, public services and retail sectors. Perceived benefits associated with the changes to the reporting requirements included focusing reporting on more serious injuries, better management of work-related sickness absence, and allowing employers more time to conduct incident investigations and submit the RIDDOR report. Some concerns were expressed that employers may either forget to report or view the submission of the RIDDOR report as less of a priority as a result of the extended reporting period. Issues associated with the increased reporting threshold included employers failing to act on over-three-day incidents; however, these concerns were not widely shared among the sample.
The changes in the RIDDOR reporting requirements were not perceived as having a prominent influence in the management of health and safety. A number of internal (eg duty of care, organisation-specific trends in incidents and near misses) and external (eg customer pressures, costs associated with potential claims) drivers, other than RIDDOR, were identified as important for the management of health and safety.
Assistance in the use of Adobe Acrobat PDF files is available on our FAQs page.