Most accident reporting to be carried out online

Most workplace injuries and dangerous incidents can no longer be reported to the HSE by phone and must be done via one of seven online forms. Thanks to the cuts to its budget, the watchdog is now only accepting telephoned reports of fatalities, major injuries and major incidents.

In addition, as of 30 September, the HSE’s health and safety telephone advice system, Infoline, has been withdrawn in favour of an online alternative.

The director of strategy for the HSE, Trevor Carlile, sought to defend the withdrawal of Infoline by saying: “HSE’s website is already overwhelmingly the most popular option for accessing health and safety information. We’re confident that our web services can be efficient and effective at a fraction of the cost per contact compared with telephone services.” He added: “We’ll continue to make improvements to make the website as intuitive and easy-to-use as possible.”

The TUC had already expressed its concern that the internet advice-based service is an inadequate replacement warning of a growing digital divide. It said: “You cannot replace a human interface with a website.”

For those with access to the internet, further information on the new service can be found at: www.hse.gov.uk/press/2011/hse-iccqa.htm

The telephone number for logging the occurrence of a fatality, major injury or major incident is 0845 300 99 23.