RIDDOR CHANGES "Slash paperwork"

Changes to the trigger point for reporting workplace injuries will save firms "thousands of hours" completing official paperwork, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said.

The regulator said changes to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations – RIDDOR – will cut red tape by a third.The GMB union said it would do "absolutely nothing" to improve the health and safety record of UK employers.Under the changes, effective April 6th, employers are no longer required to report workplace injuries which keep workers off normal duties for up to seven days.

Previously anything over three days had to be reported. The HSE said the change to the previous three-day accident reporting rule will see a 30 per cent drop in form-filling for firms, or around 30,000 fewer reports a year.

Employment minister Chris Grayling said: "These changes are all about bringing common sense back to health and safety. We want less red tape for business, and these measures should save companies thousands of hours a year. "Judith Hackitt, the HSE chair, said: "The change to the RIDDOR regulations will cut paperwork, help employers manage 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."

But Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, criticised the changes to reporting injuries at work. "There will be 30,000 fewer accidents reported, which is not the same as 30,000 fewer accidents," he said. Employers adhering to RIDDOR are still required to keep a record of all over three day injuries in an accident book.