Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 56
1 MR. MORRIS: So it means that it is the law, is it not, to
2 report RIDDOR reports on accidents. It is illegal not to
3 report them?
4 A. Of course it is the law to do it. We would love to be
5 100 per cent at it.
6
7 Q. It is illegal not to report them within a certain time a
8 well, is it not?
9 A. As I said, it is a 7 day period, 3 day, and then
10 straightaway for the major, within 24 hours.
11
12 Q. Even by your own admission something over 10 per cent of
13 all your serious accidents that come into the RIDDOR
14 categories -- there are other serious accidents of
15 course -- are illegally not being reported?
16 A. Well certainly we are not reporting them all. As we
17 said, we are at least five times better than the average.
18 What is more, if we should come across one, for example, an
19 incident report form that comes in a couple weeks after the
20 event, and we think it is reportable, we will ring the
21 store. If they have not rung us, and it is reportable, we
22 report it to the Environmental Health Officer late, even
23 though we are risking prosecution, just by that very act,
24 we feel it is our responsibility do that, and give the HO
25 an explanation of why we are reporting it late. What is
26 more, my people report back to Operations on the number of
27 stores that have reported late accidents, and the number of
28 stores that have done it properly, as well, so that they
29 can follow up in turn to try to reduce the non-reporting
30 for the future.
31
32 Q. But if other people are breaking the law, that does not
33 mean to say that it is not a fact that you are
34 systematically -----
35
36 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord, I object to the word
37 "systematically".
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Miss out "systematically" because that is
40 matter of judgment, and it sounds as if it might have a
41 connotation it has been done on purpose, that the nerve
42 centre of company is wanting for this it happen.
43
44 MR. MORRIS: Your company is regularly breaking the law by not
45 reporting RIDDOR accidents, and not reporting them within
46 the time legally specified time. That is a fact, is it
47 not?
48 A. Any we do not report, yes, it is breaking law. We will
49 not be happy until we are reporting 100 per cent of them,
50 though.
51
52 Q. Just very briefly coming on to what Mr. Rampton said about
53 crew meetings in your examination-in-chief. He extracted
54 one point from the HSE report which said "Crew meetings led
55 by a manager provide, perhaps, the best forum for promoting
56 health and safety positively in the restaurants," i.e.
57 McDonald's restaurants. The best forum that was available
58 at that time. There was no other forum for promoting, or
59 that was the best forum available at that time?
60 A. Yes, the safety circles were on pilot at the time, so
