Accident Book Reports – What To Do If Your Employer Won’t Record Your Injury At Work

An injury or condition such as ‘tennis elbow’ will not be sustained in an one-off incident and it is therefore entirely accurate that you would have slowly noticed the condition developing. If your employment requires that you undertake repetitive movements, repeated lifting or even fine skills such as typing or manufacturing, a condition such as tennis elbow, which is often caused through repetitive movements can be sustained. Our Solicitors can certainly consider a claim for you.

If you believe that you have tennis elbow as a result of your work, you should write to your employers regarding the condition and ask that they record it as a workplace injury.

If you would like to discuss a potential claim for personal injury compensation, please call us on 01225430285 or use our website to submit a claim form.

There are certainly grounds to seek to pursue this further. You mention lo lasting damage to your heart from the electric shock, but do you have any muscle pain from the shock along with the injuries to your knee and shoulder?

We would be very keen to assist you further in this matter and can advise you of your rights after such an accident at work. Our Solicitors can assist you on a No Win No Fee basis and if you’d like further help, please either call us on 01225430285 or use the form on our website to start your claim.

It is possible that a court may accept your argument under section 33 as you mention. However, for a Solicitor to be able to undertake this matter on a Conditional Fee Agreement (No Win No Fee) basis, they would need a court to have already agreed to waiving the limitation as without that waiver already being in place, there is a considerable risk that a Solicitor may end up with a case that cannot proceed, but having incurred costs for their initial work.

It is not mandatory for the injured party to sign an accident book entry, although having someone sign to state that they agree that the report made is accurate is sensible and helpful.

In this case, it would seem that a record has been made and that the employer is taking steps to ensure that a full understanding of your accident and injury is made so that they can prevent a repeat of the same in the future.

All employers should have a system of recording accidents in the workplace. Whether an injury is very minor or in the more serious cases, details of accidents in the workplace should be kept in a written log – whether that be a traditional hard copy accident book or an online system.

As your employer does not have such a system, make sure that you make your own written report of the accident and send it to your employer – ideally via email. You should state what happened, when and where and list any injuries sustained. If the cause of the injuries can be attributed to employer negligence (lack of training, inadequate PPE, broken machinery or something else), you should note that.

The pain that you felt cannot be attributed directly to any incident at work and there has been no accident. Therefore, you are reporting pain and discomfort. This would be seen in the same way as a staff member reporting that they are feeling unwell or unable to complete their shift.

If you are concerned, the sensible thing to do is to email the employers HR department to make your own record of the incident and seek their guidance.

After an accident at work, you have a right to make a claim and our initial view is that you have a strong basis upon which to make a claim.

We would like to help you to pursue a claim for personal injury compensation for the pain and discomfort caused to you and you’d also be able to recover any lost income if you have not been paid whilst you have been unable to work.

In terms of reporting the details of the accident, the fact that your employer does not appear to have a known method of recording the details of any incidents, injuries or accidents in the workplace reflects very poorly on them. You should make your own written report of the incident and email it to your Line Manager and the HR department. Make sure you list the date and location of the incident with a clear description of any injuries sustained and name any witnesses who may have seen it happen, or who may have helped you afterwards. You should also make reference to the lack of an accident book and your attempts to have the incident reported.

If you reported the injury as work related and the injury has prevented you from attending work for a period of time that warrants a RIDDOR report, the incident should be reported.

Whether or not you have a claim will depend on how you came to injure your back and whether we can attribute the injury to employer negligence. Please call us to provide further information about your work, what training you have or have not received and how you came to suffer the injury.

Yes, you can request a copy of an incident report/accident book entry. Strangely though, the employer isn’t obliged to provide you with copies of this information and they are also not prevented from doing so either – so it’s whether their policy will allow them to do so!

does this cover RIDDOR reported to HSE?

Only RIDDOR reportable incidents will be reported to RIDDOR but if the HSE is aware of an accident, then evidence is available to support a claim going forward.

Did you seek medical attention at the time of your accident? If so, contact your GP surgery and ask them to check on your medical records to let you know the date you attended Hospital/Doctors for treatment.

If you need any further help with starting a claim, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Your employer is within their rights to keep the accident book record in a secure location, but they are obliged to record the details of each and every injury within the workplace – whether it be minor or serious.

We would like to help you pursue a claim for the laceration to your arm as it would appear that you have a robust and valid claim for compensation.

Whilst the employer has refused to show you the contents of the report, photographs or statements you should not be concerned. The employer is not obliged to release this to you, but should a claim proceed, our Solicitors will be able to access the report and contents.

Whilst there is no legal obligation for the employer to allow you to view their statements or photographs relating to your accident (unless they are disciplining you as a result of the incident), there is also no real reason for denying you the opportunity to view them.

Whether or not you can disclose the contents to the employee in question is unclear. The employer has no obligation to provide copies of incident/accident reports to employees, but there is also no reason why they should not. In this case, you should check whether there are any ‘do not disclose’ clauses in the release of the document to you before you share it with the employee.

What caused you to fall on the stairs? Were they wet? Were the stairs inside or outside? If there was a hazard on the stairs that lead to the fall, you should – if you can – obtain photographs showing the hazard.

In terms of the accident report, you should write your own report and send a copy to your Manager and to the Hotel in which you should outline what happened, where and when and how you were injured.

Your employer is not obliged to show you what has been written in the accident book. Although there is no reason for them not to show you, as they are not compelled to, they may opt against disclosure of the report. If you are concerned about the contents of the report, you should email the employer to request sight of the report and also to make your own report of the incident and ask that your record is retained with the accident report.

Of course, if you were injured in an accident at work that was not your fault, you can make a claim for compensation. If the employers accident report provides details of an accident that conflict with your given version of events, it may be problematic.

Have you asked your employer about their report of the accident and asked to see a copy of the report?

Whether recorded in an accident book or in an incident log, as long as the employer does make a record of the incident and injury, that is the main thing. If the resident in question was known to be aggressive or violent, were you made aware of that risk? Were you adequately trained to handle such a risk or was there not a care plan in place that provided you with a risk assessment?

If the employer did not minimise the risk of such an injury, you can pursue a claim against them for compensation for the nasty injury you have sustained.

There is every likelihood that your employer has put you at risk by asking you to use inappropriate equipment and not provided any training or guidance. If we can establish this, then you can make a claim against the employer and their insurers, which would include loss of earnings.

If the PPE gown that you tripped over was too long or unfit for purpose, you can pursue a claim for the injury to your shoulder.

It is most likely that the employer is acting correctly and given that a 3 day Hospital stay was needed, it is likely that they are reporting the accident at work to the relevant authorities.

You could protect your interests by emailing your employer to confirm your own version of events re the accident at work and state that you are willing to provide access to the medical report if they are willing to acknowledge receipt of your version of events.

Unsurprisingly, whether or not the details of an accident at work should be recorded in the accident book will depend on the nature of the accident and the severity of the injury.

Of course, best practice requires all accidents at work where an injury is sustained to be recorded in an incident or accident book log. However, UK law only obliges the more serious of accidents at work with the more severe injuries, to be recorded. You can find out more about this in our article about RIDDOR reportable accidents.

My initial view is that you do have a valid claim against your employer for the injuries you have sustained. The evidence you have obtained in terms of photographs and voice notes could well be important and would help our Solicitors in pursuing your claim.

In the UK, employers are not obliged to provide you with a copy of an accident book report. Whilst there is no reason for them not to do so, as they don’t have to, many won’t.

Given the apparent severity of your injury given the week in Hospital and 4 weeks away from work, the sensible move would be to start a claim for compensation against the employer. Our specialist Solicitors are experts in handling accident at work compensation claims. With the use of the legal framework surrounding personal injury compensation, our Solicitors would be able to access details of the accident report and protocols employed by the company in their efforts of securing compensation for your injuries and any loss of income you may have sustained.

Please call our team – we’re ready to help you and can explain your rights, the claims process and help you start your claim for compensation.

Have you already made a claim or spoken with a specialist personal injury Solicitor? If not, please make further contact with us by way of our ‘start a claim‘ page so that we can help you in this process.

Regarding the apparent falsification of the reporting of the incident and lack of report to the Health and Safety authorities, you may want to contact the HSE personally to discuss that issue with them.

If you believe that an organisation or business has made a false report of an accident or incident at work, you should do two things. You should write to the employer/company to advise of the inaccuracies in their report, provide correct information and request that they amend their report. You should also contact your local Health and Safety Executive office and report the misleading/false report to them.

If their policy is to not send the forms outside of the school, then that is their policy. However, we would be very wary of allowing them to make a record of the incident without allowing you to contribute to the record and allowing you to read the report before it is signed off as an accurate report.

The scenario you describe is a tricky one in terms of being certain (or uncertain!) as to whether or not you have grounds to make a claim against your employer. You mention that you pulled your back whilst working. Clearly, standing on a sloping floor is far from ideal, but what is the nature of your work? Have your employers provided manual handling training?

It would be wise to ensure that you make a written ‘complaint’ to your employer about the working environment and the sloping floor. You should cite your injury and the thoughts of the chiropractor you have seen. We would also recommend that you attend your GP to discuss the injury and have your symptoms noted on your medical records.

If your employer fails to take any action after receiving your written report of the issues with the floor and you go on to develop further symptoms, there will be a paper trail of evidence to support a possible claim for personal injury compensation and you could contact us at that point to start a claim for compensation.

As for the ‘law’ that the Health and Safety manager is attempting to cite in refusing you the right to record the injury at work in their accident book, we have absolutely no idea what they are talking about (and neither do they!).

The employer should record all and any accidents at work and for them to not have a system in place to report incidents is bad practice. Given the severe injuries you have sustained, you really should not be working in the way that you are and in doing so, you are risking your long term health. Of course, you should be following medical advice and if your Doctor is advising rest, you need to rest and the responsibility for the work you do falls with the employer and not you. You may well benefit from seeking some specialist employment law advice regarding your working pattern and the way you are managed by your employer as it does not seem correct that you work 12 hour days, 7 days a week without any time off.

With regards to your injuries and any possible claim for compensation, you may have grounds to make a claim for compensation. However, we need to know more about the quad bike accident to advise further on that. We would like to know what training (if any) your employer has given you to ride the quad and how the accident happened and what caused you to be thrown from the quad.

Your employer has not acted correctly in refusing to make a record of your injury at work and by their subsequent further refusals to note the details of your injury.

As you have a witness willing to corroborate any statement you may make with regards to the nature of your injury and the incident. If you have not already done so, we would certainly recommend that you make your own written report, noting the date, time and the location of the incident as well as a description of what you were doing and the injury you sustained. You should then send the same to your employer both electronically and by recorded delivery, retaining proof of postage.

In your case, if your injury was caused through a lack of adequate manual handling training, or by your employers failure to provide you with the right equipment or support to enable you to work safely, you could pursue a claim for personal injury compensation against the employers insurance on the grounds of employer negligence.

You can ask your employer for a copy of the accident book, but they are not obliged to provide you with the same. The most sensible course of action would be to make a request in writing.

You mention what would appear to be a serious injury to your hand at work, caused by an act of negligence. As such, we would like to speak with you further and help you make a claim for compensation. Injuries to the fingers are known to have serious implications to the injured person and for such injuries to greatly impair ones independence and ability to live a ‘normal’ life during recovery. As such, successful claims can see settlement values of a substantial nature.

The employer hasn’t necessarily broken any rules, but to complete an investigation without taking evidence from the person at the heart of the incident (you) does seem foolish! I would recommend that you make your own written report of the incident outlining what you were doing and why you used the scissors and how you were injured. You could make mention of having never been told not to use scissors etc if relevant.

You could be entitled to compensation if we can show that the employer was negligent. In this case, if the cable ties need to be removed, but no tool is provided to enable their safe removal, you could succeed.

You should make a written report of the incident that caused your injury – describing what happened and how you are injured (along with noting the lack of an accident book) to your employer and send it to your HR team and your line manager.

We would be happy to assist you in taking such a claim further.

You can make a claim for compensation and if successful, you could recover any lost income caused in this incident.

Your employer is not obliged to provide you with a copy of an accident report. Whether or not they will do so will depend on their own internal policy, but if you are going to request a copy of an accident book report, it is wise to do so in writing.

You do not need a copy of an accident book entry, but it is sensible to check what is recorded – so if the employer won’t let you have a copy to keep, do ask to see what information has been entered.

You have clearly had some sort of accident at work and you may have a right to make a claim for compensation as a result. If you would like to find out more about your rights in such a situation, or how to make a claim for compensation, please call us on 01225430285.

You certainly can request a copy of an accident book report. However, there is no obligation for them to provide you with a copy.

Clearly, there is a concern that the accident has either not been reported or not been reported correctly. There is no reason whatsoever to refuse an injured person the right to see what has been recorded within an accident book in order to confirm it is an accurate reflection of the incident. Given what you describe, the safest thing to do is write your own report of the accident outlining what happened, when it happened and where it happened. You should indicate any possible breaches of health and safety or negligence and send a copy to the employer (and retain a copy for yourself) advising that as you have not been able to confirm that a report has been made, you are making one to protect your interests.

Our specialist Solicitors would certainly be keen to speak with you about your accident at work and a possible claim for compensation.

If you would like to take this further, please use the ‘start a claim’ page of our website to make contact with us.

The employer is not obliged to provide you with a copy of the accident report. Whilst there is no reason why they should not do so, they do not have to.

If you are concerned as to the way the employer retains information within their accident book, you could make a formal request for a copy of the accident record in writing (by email) and retain their response, so that should the accident report become unavailable in the future, you can at least provide evidence that it did exist.

The employer should be made aware at the earliest opportunity of any inaccuracies within an accident report in order that accurate and factually correct records are retained.

Clearly, in the immediate aftermath of an accident involving personal injury, the injured person is unlikely to be thinking clearly and able to think through various matters. As such, it is understandable that you may have signed something that didn’t properly record what had happened. Make sure your employers are made aware of this matter. If they are unwilling to amend the initial record of the accident within their accident book, write to them detailing what you see as being inaccurate and in need of amendment.

If you sought medical attention from a GP or attended a Hospital as a result of your accident, you could speak to your GP to ask them what the date of your attendance and treatment was. If you can then demonstrate that the accident happened within the past 3 years, you could seek to make a claim for compensation.

Have you made a formal written request for the accident report and copied the same to the HR department and board of Directors?

You could speak with your GP regarding any attendances at A&E or with the GP (all Hospital attendances are recorded with the GP on your medical records) and ask for the dates of any relevant attendances and injuries treated. This would give you the dates and you could then seek to pursue a claim for compensation for any injuries sustained within the past 3 years that can be attributed to employer negligence.

An employer or organisation would not have to release an accident book simply to the request of a member of the public. With regards to Data Protection requirements, such records are not suitable for public release.

Do you have any witnesses to your accident at work? Or witnesses to you attempting to report the matter? If you have any electronic record (text message, email etc) of your reporting the incident to the employer, that would help you as it would provide important evidence to support any claim for accident at work compensation.

You could also contact the HSE to discuss the employers attitude towards your accident at work and see if they will investigate the matter.

With regards to your situation now, have you started a claim for accident at work compensation? Do you have a specialist Solicitor pursuing your claim for you? If you would like any help with this matter, please do not hesitate to make an online enquiry with us.

You have done the right thing so far in reporting the accident and providing a statement of facts with regards to what happened and how. Your employer does not have to provide a copy of the statement, but if they have promised the same then they should do so. Perhaps you could request one in writing?

With regards to your concerns about the employers attitude towards you and the incident, you could perhaps contact the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to seek some specialist advice from them on that particular issue.

Any employer requiring employees to work with or handle chemicals face strict obligations under the COSHH (control of substances hazardous to health) regulations. COSHH regulations require employers to ensure that all chemicals are handled strictly, stored safely and that those working with them are provided with the correct personal protective equipment and training.

In your case, a cleaning agent getting in to the eyes can cause serious damage and would certainly cause distress and discomfort, so eye injury claims can lead to substantial settlement amounts. On face value, you may well have a valid claim to pursue against the employer for compensation and I would welcome the chance to discuss your rights and options with you directly. Perhaps you would like to email me directly (ian@direct2compensation.co.uk) with your contact details so that I can call you to discuss the incident in more detail and offer you some assistance going forward?

The scenario you describe regarding the shoulder injury you sustained at work gives me an initial view that you have a valid claim for compensation. The employer is likely to be seen as negligent in this incident as the trolley that should be used for moving the heavy items was broken. As such, they should have either had it repaired, arranged for a replacement or postponed the moving of the heavy bags. By asking you to move the heavy items without providing you with the correct equipment to minimise the risk of injury, your employer is likely to have to admit liability should you make a claim.

We would like to hear from you so that we can help you make your claim for accident at work compensation.

Regardless of the size of your employer, they should have a suitable incident/injury and accident reporting system. It could be as simple as a spreadsheet, a notebook or a formal incident reporting system.

Given your employers failure to have such a reporting system, you should put a report to them in writing – either by email or recorded delivery outlining what happened, how you were injured and when. You should also make them aware that you have received no manual handling training from them.

As your employer has failed to provide you with manual handling training, you should seriously consider making a claim for compensation against them as it is likely that you can attribute your injuries to the back to employer negligence and would likely succeed.

Should you wish to take this further, please call us on 01225430285.

Your employer is within their rights to deny you taking a copy of the accident book entry. However, they would not be able to refuse sight of a copy of the report to a Solicitor should an injured person go on to pursue a claim for compensation and their instructed Solicitor formally requests a copy.

It is good that you have seen and made a report in to the accident book.

Whether or not your employer has broken the law is somewhat irrelevant here – although if RIDDOR and the HSE are made aware of a failure to report a reportable incident, the employer could find themselves in hot water.

Given the condition affecting you, have you considered making a claim for RSI compensation? You could well succeed in this matter if it can be shown that your current and former employers have failed to adequately minimise the risk of you suffering with such a condition – such as adequate training, personal protective equipment, job rotations and regular breaks.

At Direct2Compensation, we have a genuine expertise in all matters relating to workplace injuries and RSI’s so it would be a good idea for you to contact us and we’ll be able to advise you as to whether you have a valid claim against your employer. If so, we would be very happy to assist you on a full No Win No Fee basis.

The consequences of a head injury at work can be very serious, with behavioural changes commonly listed as one of the most difficult issues caused in such an incident.

It sounds as if your Partner needs expert advise and support of a specialist Solicitor in this matter and this is something we would be happy to help with. On face value, it seems that he would have a valid claim against his employer for workplace injury compensation and we would like to take this further for him.

If your partner wants to discuss his rights with us, he is free to liaise with us with no obligation and he may have concerns about claiming against his employer – something we are used to discussing with people who have been injured at work.

It is frustrating to read that your employer will not let you view the accident book entry. Unfortunately, there is no obligation for an employer to disclose this to you – although most good employers have no issue with letting people see the accident book.

I would be happy to discuss your accident in greater detail so that you can better understand what options you may have with regards to taking further action.

Hi, I am very sorry to hear about your Brother-in-Law’s accident. His employer is breaching health and safety guidelines by refusing to record the details of the accident correctly.

I would suggest that the your Brother-in-Law writes to the employer (email or recorded delivery) to request that they record the details within an accident book or incident log and that in that letter/email, that he outlines what happened, what injuries he has sustained and note any obvious health and safety issues that lead to our could have prevented his accident.

We would be happy to help him pursue a claim for compensation against his employer.

You don’t need to worry too much about getting a copy of the accident book record, the key thing to do is to make sure that it has been recorded. You have done everything that anyone could reasonably expect you to do in terms of reporting your accident. Indeed, the fact that you have sent the company a letter by recorded delivery to ensure that the details of your accident are on record means that you can prove that the company has been made aware of your accident.

Whether or not your employer will allow you/employees access to view copies or make entries in to accident books depends on the policies employed by that company.

All employers should keep records relating to workplace accidents and the most common way of doing so is via an accident book or incident reporting system. In many cases, the individual involved in an accident will not be the person who records the details as it is commonplace for a member of Management of HR staff who will make an entry based on statements from the person injured and those who witnessed the accident.

In your case, it sounds like an incident/accident book entry has been made and you are simply requesting a copy of this record or the right to view what information is contained within the report. If your employer is refusing you access to this, you need to find out if this is the company policy or if it is just that your individual Manager is refusing you access to the record. You should contact your HR department and ask to see a copy of the policy relating to accident book records and your access to them.

If you are not being allowed access to view the record, this could well be a breach of your personal information. Employers are governed Data Protection regulations and it could be that the information they have on record relating to an incident in which you were injured is incorrect. If you are not allowed to view this and have it corrected, they have breached your privacy rights. In this case, you could consider contacting the Information Commissioners Office to request assistance and make a complaint.

It is not always the case that employers will allow staff members to have a copy of an accident book entry, but they should be allowing you to view the same.

When it comes to claiming personal injury compensation after an accident at work, you do not need to personally have a copy of an accident book entry. The important thing is that an entry or record has been made. Most of our accident at work compensation claimants do not have a copy of their accident book entry, but when our specialist solicitors contact our claimants employers, they are able to provide the relevant proof of authority to obtain a copy for the claimant.