The recent unseasonal weather conditions have had a chaotic
effect, with thousands of people being affected by
organisations' inability to predict and react in a timely and
effective fashion to the consequences of unexpected events. As a
result, organisations were caught completely unprepared, even
though similar issues had arisen in analogous cases in the past,
and had no plans in place to enable them to deal with the
consequences.
This has put into question organisations' accident and incident
investigation procedures and their ability to proactively assess
incidents. Accident investigation protocols are the processes by
which organisations review incidents after they have occurred,
which enable them to learn from their mistakes and put in place
structures to prevent such incidents from arising again in the
future, or if they do, to minimise their effect.
Given the continuously increasing level of fines being imposed on
organisations for breaches of health and safety laws, being able to
show that a properly considered investigation protocol was followed
following an incident (a) will show the courts that an organisation
is well organised and takes health and safety issues seriously, (b)
may keep fines lower by ensuring that losses are mitigated as a
result of post incident actions and (c) may even avoid a
prosecution being brought.
The HSE and other organisations that give guidance on risk
management are keen to point out the importance of a properly
formulated accident investigation plan and the need for
organisations to examine all incidents, including near misses. The
HSE's advice is that an effective investigation protocol
requires a methodical approach to information gathering, collation
and analysis.
Several key points that organisations need to bear in mind when
preparing an accident investigation protocol include:
- Have proper plans formulated and be ready to implement them as soon as an accident/incident occurs;
- Consider testing the plans internally regularly as tests may reveal problems that had not been considered when formulating the plan;
- Investigate incidents as early as possible while evidence is available and events are fresh in people's minds;
- Get legal advisors instructed at the earliest opportunity to ensure that the investigation report is protected by litigation privilege. This is vital since instructing non-legal advisors to investigate may mean that the investigation report will not be privileged and will be disclosable;
- Encourage cooperation between management and workers in the planning process and investigation;
- Incorporate investigation protocols in the organisation's business continuity plans to ensure that unexpected events do not have a disastrous effect on key functions of the business.
In conclusion, an effective accident/incident investigation protocol ought to be regarded as an invaluable business tool not simply as a 'Health and Safety requirement'.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
