RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED SO FAR...

CSG has been involved in several projects since its inception. Our main achievements to date are listed below:

Quarterly members meetings with guest speakers
Specialist sector recognition by IOSH and RoSPA
Two successful annual conferences
Developed a sponsorship scheme for accredited courses with NEBOSH. Requirements for the NEBOSH course can be found here. Application for the NEBOSH course can be found here.

The latest...

RIDDOR REPORTING

A CSG member reported to us at the meeting mentioned above that a volunteer had been involved in a motor bike traffic accident whilst delivering blood for emergency treatment. The volunteer rider ended up with 9 broken ribs and a light nick to a kidney. He spent about a week in Hospital and is recovering now. His question we forwarded to the HSE was, ‘Ordinarily, this would be reported under RIDDOR. As that's not the case with entirely voluntary organisations. This accident has escaped the attention of HSE does the HSE want voluntary organisations to report such items on a voluntary basis?

Below is the response from the HSE:

Injuries on the public highway are dealt with under the Road Traffic Act (RTA) and as such are not reportable under RIDDOR, save for certain circumstances regarding construction works on a highway (not relevant here).
Also, organisations without employees are not covered by RIDDOR as the duty to report only extends to ‘employers’. If YFW have no employees at all then they would have no requirement to report. A charity or other organisation with at least one employee would still be required to report relevant incidents.

Lastly for clarity, incidents involving volunteers are reportable only if they result in the injured person being taken direct to hospital for treatment. In other words, they should report incidents to volunteers in the same way that they would report incidents to members of the public (as per Regulation 5 of RIDDOR re: Non-fatal accidents to non-workers). NB: ‘Treatment’ does not include examinations ordiagnostic tests and there is no need to report incidents where persons are taken to hospital as a precaution only but receive no treatment for their injuries.

CSG Response & Comment

The CSG continues to press for and encourage all professional bodies including the HSE for a RIDDOR change that would include unpaid workers and volunteers as well as all traffic accidents where people at work are involved, as victims, passengers, drivers or owners of vehicles

Below is the response from the HSE to a request for clarification on some things around RIDDOR reporting for voluntary organisations, As per the risk assessment requirement for entirely voluntary organisations in control of premises, it could have an effect on a lot of groups that they're just not currently aware of.

In answer to your query, the duty to report under RIDDOR lies with the ‘responsible person’ – this is defined in Regulation 3 as either an employee, employer or ‘a person not at work or a self-employed person, or in relation to any other dangerous occurrence, the person who by means of their carrying on any undertaking was in control of the premises where the reportable or recordable incident happened, at the time it happened’.

‘Undertaking’ can be extended to include voluntary activities so, if the volunteer or voluntary organisation is in control of the premises (which is often described as having the right of access or egress) then they could be required to report incidents which meet the definition of being reportable. For other volunteers or members of the public, this would mean only those incidents where as a result of their injuries they are taken direct to hospital for treatment.

Further information about the application of RIDDOR including what injuries and near misses (also known as dangerous occurrences) need to be reported can be found on our website at Reportable incidents - RIDDOR - HSE.