Day 085 - 08 Feb 95 - Page 15
1 -- you know, if a RIDDOR accident occurred, we reported it
2 into the appropriate position at that time, and we were
3 concerned with the general operations of our restaurants
4 and health and safety within our restaurants.
5
6 Q. So you did not compare your accident rate with other areas?
7 A. No.
8
9 Q. That would be, for example, a performance standard, would
10 it not, where you say you set a standard for reducing
11 accidents or comparing one region to another. That would
12 be something that would be quite useful, would it, in terms
13 of ensuring that people were taking the issue seriously in
14 every region?
15 A. I think better than that would be to cite examples of
16 best practice and to change the way the company operated,
17 or did a certain procedure would be more helpful than just
18 saying "A is better than B", just a detail, you know,
19 within the company, prioritising where accidents were and
20 then someone probably in the Operations Development
21 Department in the past decided on how we could address
22 those areas. But comparing region to region on how many
23 accidents we had, I do not know if that was done but I
24 certainly was not privy to any of that comparison.
25
26 Q. It says in 4.10 that there were no formal procedures for
27 the investigations of non-reportable injuries or near-miss
28 accidents, "... though these would provide valuable lessons
29 on preventing future accidents". Is that true, that there
30 is no formal procedure for investigation of non-reportable
31 injuries?
32 A. It is not true, no, though there is a procedure for
33 investigating certainly near-miss accidents.
34
35 Q. Is that something that has been introduced then since this
36 report?
37 A. It has been apparent to myself that when I was an
38 Operations Manager that we should report near-miss
39 accidents and that is, maybe, a lift fails or something
40 like that which no-one is injured but is serious and that
41 would be investigated. So, I think it is very much to the
42 fore of people's minds now. It certainly happens now, that
43 managers report near-misses.
44
45 Q. Where it is talking about investigation -- when there is a
46 RIDDOR accident is there an investigation?
47 A. Yes.
48
49 Q. Every time, or is that just there may be depending on how
50 serious it is or what?
51 A. I believe because there is not a vast amount of them,
52 the majority would be investigated by the regional Health
53 and Safety officers; most definitely the most serious ones
54 are. I get informed of the serious ones by electronic mail
55 in Head Office to keep me up-to-date with the current
56 ones. The regional Health and Safety Officers investigate
57 as appropriate within the regions.
58
59 Q. So it is not an automatic investigation; it depends on the
60 seriousness?
