Health and Safety Laws Re Accident Book

A question about : Health and Safety Laws Re Accident Book

Could someone help me with this, my daughter had an accident in a major department store. Staff where told, and acknowledged by the physical evdience of that happened.

I was in shock and had a very very upset child, when i have spoke with various people re the accident i was told due to Health and Safety law this should have been recorded.

I contacted the said store, and got a responce that i refused medical care thus this means it would not go in the book.

A- I never refused medical care B- I have been told even though we never had medical care their that its their responsibility and they had to record the accident for their own legalalities to cover themselves from being sued.

Can someone please confirm what ACT it is in law that they have to follow on recording this.

Best answers:

• Healy and safety at work act 1974
  4 General duties of persons concerned with premises to persons other than their employees.E+W+S+N.I.
  (1)This section has effect for imposing on persons duties in relation to those who—
  (a)are not their employees; but
  (b)use non-domestic premises made available to them as a place of work or as a place where they may use plant or substances provided for their use there,
  and applies to premises so made available and other non-domestic premises used in connection with them.
  (2)It shall be the duty of each person who has, to any extent, control of premises to which this section applies or of the means of access thereto or egress therefrom or of any plant or substance in such premises to take such measures as it is reasonable for a person in his position to take to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the premises, all means of access thereto or egress therefrom available for use by persons using the premises, and any plant or substance in the premises or, as the case may be, provided for use there, is or are safe and without risks to health.
  However - The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 goes on to say :
  
  Injuries to people not at work
• Thank you so much Muckybutt, so if i was writing back to them which part would i quote that they had a legal obligation to record it.
  I just wanted to make sure it was recorded but got such a snotty letter back, when what happened to my daughter was pretty horrific which took 30 minutes in store (with staff) to stop her crying that i want them to know it IS something they needed to record.
• Quote the RIDDOR 1995 Act.
  copy and paste :
  Recording and reporting accidents and ill health at work is a legal requirement under The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR).
  RIDDOR places a legal duty on:
• employers
• self-employed people
• people in control of premises.

These 'responsible persons' must record and report certain incidents, injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences involving employees, self-employed workers and members of the public.
What do responsible persons have to do?
Details of all reportable incidents, injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences must be recorded, including:

• the date when the report is made
• the method of reporting
• the date, time and place of the event
• personal details of those involved
• a brief description of the nature of the event or disease.

Records can be kept in any form but must conform to data protection requirements.
Should they not do that then contact the Health and Safety Executive.

• I am not sure that H&SW Section 4 actually covers shops.
  You are using neither plant nor substances provided for their use.
  There is a general duty of care by the premises owner and their employees for all visitors
  There is no mandatory requirement to complete an accident book entry in this situation, however, in our highly litigious society it would make sense to have a record.
• ~What actually happened to your little girl then.
• Was ther an actual injury?
• Sorry, I read 'record and report' as a combined action for certain injuries, not record all injuries and only report certain ones.
  HSE Guidance
  Quote:
• The accident book is for recording reportable accidents, ie where someone suffers death, severe injury, or needs hospital treatment.
  An incident is not a reportable accident, but an occurance where first aid is administered. Companies are not obliged to record these, but it is difficult to discharge their duty of monitoring health and safety compliance if they do not.
  Companies may do this by keeping a separate incident book, but often the same book is used, loosely referred to as the "accident book".
  So if you were not seriously injured, and refused first aid, then it was not an accident, not an incident, and not recordable unless they chose to do so.
• A similar case has just happened to my mother,of which i would be grateful for some advice.last week she was shopping in a local supermarket when she fell over a pipe which was sticking out from a fridge.she reported it when she got to the tillpoint,to which the employee ignored her.
  The day after she was in pain and had a badly bruised eye from where she had fell.she rang the store to which she was then diverted to head office and explained what had happened.they apologised and said that the accident book at the very least should of been completed for this.Just today she's received a letter from the store chain apologising for any inconvenience and that the store manager filled the accident book in at the time (which is a lie,as no details where given or manager present).I feel strongly about this as its implying my mother is telling lies when its the store manager doing this. Any ideas??
• i'm going by the words of my mother who said the member of staff ignored her and carried on serving.does the accident book need the person affected to be present when its completed? or for the persons details to be recorded?