Houses of Parliament. Health and Safety Policy Supplement (PS1) Accident and Incident Reporting

Transcription

1 Health and Safety Policy Supplement (PS1) Accident and Incident Reporting This policy supplement has been prepared by the Parliamentary Safety Risk Management team and endorsed by the Director General (Human Resources and Change), who has delegated responsibility for the development of health and safety policy on behalf of the House Authorities. This policy supplement is effective from August 2014 to July 2015 and forms part of, and should be read in conjunction with, the Combined Health and Safety Policy. PS1 17 July 14 Page 1 of 9

2 Document Control Information Issue No. Description of Change By Date 0.1 Decluttered accident reporting policy dated Updated to take into account HoL arrangements. Sent to SHWS team members for comment. 0.2 Revision to take into account comments from SHWS team and updated wording to reflect the draft Combined Safety Policy Marianne McDougall Nov 2013 Marianne McDougall Feb Updated following agreement of Combined Safety Policy. Specified responsibilities of the safety and occupational health teams following dissolution of the Safety, Health and Wellbeing Service. Final draft sent to members of House safety committees and TUS for comment. Marianne McDougall June Signed off and issued Andrew Walker July 2014 Distribution List Name Purpose PSAC Safety Committee HoL and HoC/PICT Health and Wellbeing team For information and action where necessary For dissemination by safety co-ordinators and TU safety representatives Integration into working arrangements Documentation Sign Off Name Title Signature Date Andrew Walker DG HR and Change ANDREW WALKER 17 TH July 2014 Document Location Location To be published on the Intranet (safety pages) Central Safety, Health and Wellbeing services shared folder; SPIRE PS1 17 July 14 Page 2 of 9

3 1. Aim of This Policy Supplement This document sets out the policy to be followed when any person is injured at work, suffers work related ill health or witnesses a dangerous occurrence/near miss on the Parliamentary Estate. It covers: How to report accidents, near miss or dangerous occurrences, How to report possible work-related ill health, Reporting to the Health and Safety Executive, Arrangements for the investigation of any accident or incident, Modifying work procedures, risk assessments or safe systems of work if investigation shows this to be necessary. It applies to: Staff of the responsible authorities 1, Incidents involving visitors, Contracted staff working on the Estate, including Metropolitan Police staff, All Members and their staff, when working on the Parliamentary Estate. 2. Policy Statement It is the policy of the responsible authorities to: a) have robust arrangements in place for dealing with workplace ill health, accidents, near misses and dangerous occurrences; and b) report such events to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in accordance with legislative requirements 2. This will be achieved by: a) communicating the arrangements for reporting and investigating all workplace ill health, accidents, near misses and dangerous occurrences; and b) receiving affirmation from management groups that such incidents involving their staff or arising as a result of their activities are reported, investigated and actioned. 1 In this policy the responsible authorities are the House of Commons Service, the House of Lords Administration and PICT. 2 In accordance with the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR); a full list is given on the HSE website : PS1 17 July 14 Page 3 of 9

4 3. People and Their Responsibilities 3.1. Everyone working on the Parliamentary Estate Staff of the responsible authorities must report any accident to their line management and complete the on-line accident report form. In the event of having or witnessing an accident, near miss or dangerous occurrence, people should: if necessary, make the situation safe to prevent further injury or damage; contact a First Aider or request an ambulance (ext 3333) if there is an injured person who requires help (the scale of the response will depend on the seriousness of the incident); contact the PED Helpdesk on ext 4747 if the area or any equipment may not be in a safe condition; and Report it. If a person believes that they are suffering from work-related ill health, they should report this to their manager and the Health and Wellbeing team Management Responsibilities Senior Managers are responsible as appropriate for ensuring that: a) staff within their management chain are aware of, and carry out, their responsibilities under this policy; b) staff have sufficient time and resources to investigate and report back on accidents or incidents which may occur within their domain; c) they establish processes to inform them of any significant accidents which occur within their areas of command and the outcome of subsequent investigations; d) they appoint a senior manager to assist with or complete investigations, if requested by the parliamentary safety team; and e) they keep records and monitor accident data as appropriate Line managers 3 at all levels are responsible for: a) ensuring that any accident involving their staff is reported and appropriately investigated; b) contacting the parliamentary safety team immediately if they consider the accident/incident to be serious (see 4.1.); 3 manager means anyone who has direction or control over a workplace or the work of others. This includes, but is not restricted to, line managers, team leaders, supervisors, project leaders, project managers and contract managers. PS1 17 July 14 Page 4 of 9

5 c) informing the parliamentary safety team of any incident that may be reportable to the Health and Safety Executive; d) making a management referral to the occupational health adviser if they believe that one of their staff may have a work-related illness or disease; e) ensuring the relevant risk assessment is reviewed and updated by their local risk assessor, if necessary; f) identifying and implementing appropriate measures to assist in preventing a re-occurrence and reporting back to the safety team when the actions are complete; g) informing senior management about any accidents or incidents involving their staff; and h) co-operating and assisting with any investigations which may be undertaken by a third party e.g. the parliamentary safety team, local safety coordinator or the trade union safety representatives Central safety, health and wellbeing services The Parliamentary Safety Risk team is responsible for: a) advising on investigations and preventative measures; b) reviewing reported accidents/incidents to ensure consistency in approach and adequacy of investigations; c) initiating any further investigations if more detail is needed; d) investigating accidents/incidents where a) technical expertise is needed or b) there is a substantial level of risk; e) maintaining a system for recording accidents/incidents and compiling statistics and regular reports for the responsible authorities; f) informing HSE of incidents reportable under RIDDOR as soon as they are made aware of them; g) managing requests by HSE to exercise its inspection and enforcement powers in relation to people and matters on the Parliamentary estate; and h) informing Trade Union safety representatives of incidents reportable under RIDDOR The Health and Wellbeing team is responsible for: a) ensuring the details of clients who have had an injury or possible work related ill health are recorded on the on-line accident reporting system 4 ; b) initiating or assisting with further investigations if more detail is needed by the Parliamentary Safety Risk Team; 4 The information entered on the on-line reporting database will be consistent with the requirements of the protocol for handling medical information and follow the working arrangements agreed within the central safety, health and wellbeing services. PS1 17 July 14 Page 5 of 9

6 c) investigating accidents/incidents where their professional expertise is needed or there is a substantial level of risk to the health of those undertaking that work; d) recording details of any client who attends the service following an injury at work and sharing such information with their safety colleagues, without breaching medical confidentiality; and e) compiling statistics and regular reports for the Head of the Safety Risk Team, on request First Aiders First Aiders must complete a treatment form if they provide assistance to anyone who has had an accident. The completed form should be sent to the health and wellbeing team. 4. Specific Arrangements 4.1. Serious Incidents During standard office hours (9am-5pm), anyone who is involved in, witnesses or is aware of a serious incident must report it immediately to the safety team 5 by telephone. The team can then make sure that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) gets the relevant information quickly and there is effective liaison. The Parliamentary Safety Risk Team and HSE should be told immediately of the following: fatal accidents at work; accidents where several workers have been seriously injured; accidents resulting in serious injury to a member of the public; and accidents and incidents causing major disruption, such as evacuation of people, closure of roads, large numbers of people going to hospital etc Reporting serious incidents outside normal office hours Any serious incident occurring outside normal office hours should be dealt with in accordance with the Incident Management Framework Accidents/Incidents involving contractors Contractors who have not made arrangements with their Parliamentary contract manager to report accidents on-line, using the House system must report the 5 This allows the safety team to fulfil any reporting requirements within the relevant statutory deadline. PS1 17 July 14 Page 6 of 9

7 accident immediately, on a hard copy of the Parliamentary Accident/Incident report form. This form is available via their parliamentary contract manager. Contract managers have responsibility for ensuing that they investigate such incidents appropriately and that action is taken accordingly. The contractor must also inform their own line management and HSE if necessary. It is the contractor s responsibility to notify HSE of any injuries to their staff that are reportable under RIDDOR, not the responsible authorities. Responsibility for reporting dangerous occurrences under RIDDOR lies with the person in control of the premises. The parliamentary manager responsible for the work must contact the parliamentary safety risk team immediately. If the incident occurs out of normal working hours, the parliamentary manager responsible for the work must decide whether HSE must be informed Accidents/incidents involving Members and their staff Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords and their staff must report any injury which may occur whilst on the Estate. If they have access to the parliamentary intranet, this can be done via the on-line reporting tool, or they can alert one of the House staff, such as a doorkeeper or attendant who may complete the necessary documentation. Members have the responsibility for investigating accidents involving their own staff. If a Member has an accident, the person responsible for the investigation will be determined by considering the circumstances of the accident Accidents/incidents involving visitors and guests Accidents involving visitors should be reported and investigated by the person responsible for them at the time of the incident. Tour guides, Visitor Assistants and the Police have access to the accident/incident report form; where possible the visitor should be given a copy of the completed form Reporting occupational disease The health and wellbeing team (central safety, health and wellbeing services) will report occupational diseases to the HSE when: a) they receive a written diagnosis of one of the RIDDOR specified occupational diseases from a doctor (this can be a medical certificate), and b) the person s current job involves exposure to the associated hazard. The consultant occupational health physicians will make the final decision regarding the need to report to the HSE. Managers or HR who receive medical certificates which may indicate an occupational disease should contact the occupational health team immediately, so that the most appropriate way forward can be decided. PS1 17 July 14 Page 7 of 9

8 4.6. Record keeping The parliamentary safety risk team are responsible for retention and storage of accident/incident report forms and other related document which are within their possession. Primary records will be kept for a minimum of 6 years from the date of the accident. All potential evidence, e.g. equipment involved in an accident, photographs or video footage must be labelled, dated and retained securely by the safety team or with a nominated individual for at least three years from the date of the accident/incident. The location of such evidence will be logged with the accident details. 5. Checking and Reviewing the Effectiveness of this Policy Compliance with this policy will be incorporated into the annual assurance process as follows: 5.1. Parliamentary Safety Risk Team They will: a) review statistics and report to senior management accordingly; b) monitor all accident reports to ensure consistency of approach and that sufficient and appropriate information is provided to allow valid conclusions to be made; and c) audit the arrangements in place for reporting and investigating accidents and report to the responsible authorities management groups and Safety Committees Local management Departments and Offices in the responsible authorities must: a) ensure that they regularly review reports of accidents which have occurred to their staff or as a result of their staff s activities; b) ensure that their staff are correctly investigating accidents or incidents; and c) monitor and review that any remedial actions identified have been adequate, appropriate and implemented Safety Committees The Health and Safety Committees will receive monthly and annual statistical reports from the safety team. The Committee will discuss the reports at each meeting. PS1 17 July 14 Page 8 of 9

9 Departmental or office safety committees should include discussions on accident reports as part of their normal business and take appropriate actions at a local level. 6. Policy Review This policy is effective from the date of sign off and will be reviewed annually as part of the management review process and the annual Letter of Assurance to the Management Board. PS1 17 July 14 Page 9 of 9