A change to the procedure for accident reporting came into effect on 6th April 2012 following the recommendations in the Lofstedt Report on safety last year. From April 6, employers will no longer have to report injuries that keep workers off work for seven days or less. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have said that the changes will save British companies thousands of hours completing official paperwork.

The change to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995 is expected to see a fall of around 30 per cent in the number of incidents that must be reported by law – an average of around 30,000 fewer reports a year.

Employers will also be given a longer period in which to report incidents, increasing the time from three to seven days following the date of incident.

By increasing the reporting threshold from three to seven days, the change will align with the ‘fit note’ system which ensures that someone who is off work because they suffered a reportable injury has a professional medical assessment. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have said that the changes will save British companies thousands of hours completing official paperwork.

Employers and others with responsibilities under RIDDOR must still keep a record of all over three day injuries, through the company accident book.

HSE chair Judith Hackitt says, “The change to the RIDDOR regulations will cut paperwork, help employers managing sickness absence and ensure that the reporting system is focused on risks which have resulted in more serious injury.”

“This is just one of many changes we are making to the health and safety system to make it simpler, clearer and more easily understood – stripping unnecessary paperwork out of the system without compromising essential protections for workers.”

ISO9004:2009 is the guidance document for ISO9001. It explains the paragraphs of the standard in reasonably plain English and takes the implementation of the standard beyond compliance. It’s not only an important standard for anyone implementing the ISO9001 quality standard, it also provides some really useful guidance for anyone who just wants to look at their business with fresh eyes and improve performance.

The standard defines eight key quality management principles that are fundamental to the success of any business:

• Customer focus
• Leadership
• Involvement of people
• Process approach
• System approach to management
• Continual improvement
• Decision making based on facts
• Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

Each month we take one of the principles and look at the key benefits and how they can be applied in any business.

Principle 7 – Factual approach to decision making

Last month we looked at continual improvement, and in order to demonstrate tangible improvement, data is an essential ingredient. It helps to define ‘where we are now’ and the goals for the future. Data can be used to identify weak areas and track progress too.

Key benefits:

• Informed decisions.
• An increased ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of past decisions through reference to factual records.
• Increased ability to review, challenge and change opinions and decisions.

Applying the ISO9004 principles of continual improvement should lead to:

• Ensuring that data and information are sufficiently accurate and reliable.
• Making data accessible to those who need it.
• Analysing data and information using valid methods.
• Making decisions and taking action based on factual analysis, balanced with experience and intuition.

To find out more about the principles of good quality management and how it can help your business, drop us an email or call us on 0333 321 0131.