The Electrical Contractors’Association (ECA) has called for a major simplification of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations (RIDDOR).
In particular, ECA wants RIDDOR to stop asking employers to report occupational diseases or illnesses. The ECA also wants to see much simpler reporting of dangerous occurrences.
Under RIDDOR, various work-related accidents,diseases and dangerous occurrences must be reported and the ECA believes that RIDDOR currently tries to serve too many functions.
“Our message to the HSE on RIDDOR is to make it very simple,” said Paul Reeve, Health, Safety and Environment Advisor at ECA. “HSE’s national safety figures will be far more credible if they make a RIDDOR report as easy as possible”.
The ECA wants RIDDOR to cease asking employers to report occupational diseases or illnesses, believing that this information is best gathered by other means such as the Labour Force Survey, reports from General Practitioners or even voluntarily from trade associations. The ECA believes that,since employers tend not to diagnose diseases, a medically trained person should report these illnesses, as long as the illness has clear symptoms, linked to an occupational cause.
