You have had the unfortunate experience of an accident in your workplace. What should I do and what lessons can be learnt?

The accident has occurred, and the victim has been treated by medics. The hazard has been removed or rendered safe.

You need to determine whether you are legally obliged to report the accident under the RIDDOR Regulations. Check out the HSE website if you are unsure.

Depending on the severity of the injuries you may need to contact the victim's next of kin. Guidance on this element is outside the scope of this guidance note.

You should conduct an internal accident investigation as soon as possible whilst the accident is fresh in memory. The purpose of this investigation is to record what happened, why it happened, and identify any lessons that can be learnt. Where possible get signed witness statements.

Speak to the individuals who undertake the activity and try to establish exactly what caused the accident. Accidents usually happen because two or more factors occur simultaneously e.g. running on a wet floor. Identify the factors (triggers) that you believe caused the accident. Where possible take photographs of the scene and the physical factors that contributed to the accident.

Check your findings against your risk assessment for the activity – in light of the accident do you consider the risk assessment to be "suitable and sufficient"? Do you consider your existing controls to be adequate? If not you should review the risk assessment and your controls. A copy of your documentation current at the time of the accident must be kept for inspection by the Enforcing Authority. Depending upon the severity of the accident, they may undertake their own investigation, which will involve looking at your risk assessments and controls to determine whether you, as the employer, have done everything practicable to safeguard employees and others whilst at work.

Record your findings, and prepare a written Accident Investigation Report. If you are going to make this available to others, then be careful not to be in breach of data protection laws. Refer to the victim as "Person X" rather than their actual name.

Identify how the accident happened, what was the root cause, and what improvement action you deem necessary. Improvement action could include a change to the activity process, physical modifications to the activity hardware, training etc. Before you implement these proposed improvement actions, consult with your employees to ensure that the improvements do actually make the situation better. Some actions designed to improve safety can introduce other hazards that can make the situation worse.

You should also notify your insurers, especially if you think there may be a claim on your Employers Liability Insurance.