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Notes to editors

In June 2010, the chairman of Network Rail requested the RSSB to carry out an independent review of RIDDOR reporting by Network Rail staff and its contractors. This followed initial concerns by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) about the comparative number of lost time injuries reported to the total number of RIDDOR major injuries being reported and subsequent discussions with the Unite trade union.

The review’s remit was to consider:

• The extent of under reporting and/or misclassification of workforce related lost time injuries from 2005 to present
• The reasons behind under reporting and/or misclassification
• The potential influence of safety league tables, contractual requirements, other management incentives or other management behaviours
• The safety/reporting culture

Definitions
The review is particularly focused on accidents to: employees at work, and self-employed persons at work in premises under the control of someone else. These employees and self-employed persons may work for Network Rail, contractors to Network Rail or sub-contractors and labour suppliers. This therefore excludes, in the railway context, incidents which may be reportable because they occur to passengers or members of the public. For employees and the self-employed, the key applicable RIDDOR categories, summarised from the regulations are:

· Death The death of any person as a result of an accident. This includes the death of an employee if this occurs some time after a reportable injury which led to that employee’s death.

· Major Injury A major injury resulting from an accident. Major injuries are listed in the regulations (eg fracture other than to fingers, thumbs or toes; amputation; dislocation of the shoulder, hip, knee or spine; loss of sight (temporary or permanent)).

· Dangerous Occurrences Dangerous occurrences are events which do not necessarily result in a reportable injury, but have the potential to cause significant harm. Dangerous occurrences are defined in the regulations and some dangerous occurrences are railway-specific (eg signals passed without authority).

· ‘Over-3-day’ injury Someone at work is unable to do the full range of their normal duties for more than three days as a result of an injury (an ‘over-3-day’ injury) caused by an accident at work;

· Reportable disease A person at work suffers one of a number of specified diseases, as defined in the regulations.

For the classification of ‘over-3-day’ injuries, the following factors need to be taken in to account (taken from the RIDDOR Regulations):

· It is not a major injury.

· The injury results in the injured person being away from work or unable to do the full range of their normal duties for more than three consecutive days, excluding the day of the accident.

· The consecutive days to include any days the injured person would not normally have been expected to work, such as weekends, rest days or holidays.

· Further information on the meaning of ‘full range of normal duties’ is provided. It is work of a kind which a person might reasonably be expected to do, either under their contract of employment, or, if there is no such contract, in the normal course of their work. Determining whether they would have been unable to do their normal range of duties may involve a degree of judgement. It may be necessary to ask the injured person if they would have been able to carry out all of their duties if they had been at work.

· Only physical injuries resulting from acts of violence suffered by people at work are included in the definition of ‘accident’. Cases where a worker suffered shock from witnessing an act of violence or abusive or threatening behaviour would not need to be reported in the context of an ‘over-3-day’ injury.