Accidents & incidents

The College, as an employer, has legal responsibilities under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations to have effective arrangements in place to manage health and safety. These arrangements include the requirement to investigate the immediate and underlying causes of accidents and incidents to ensure that remedial actions are taken and lessons learnt. Accident investigation is therefore an important and integral part of reactive health and safety management and complements other proactive management systems.

In addition to the above, the College has a duty under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) to report certain types of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences to the enforcing authorities. There is also a duty to report certain incidents involving genetically modified organisms under the Genetically Modified Organisms (Contained Use) Regulations. Under the Building Safety Act 2022, Imperial also has a duty to report specific building fire and structural incidents to the Building Safety Regulator.

Categories of Incidents and Accidents

Level One Categorisation (First one selected when the incident is reported)

All incidents will fall into one of these categories.

Work-related injury

Any accident resulting in physical injury to a person while undertaking any task at work (for staff), or place of study (for students). This includes field work and other types of off-site work.

Work-related ill health

Any condition believed to be caused by work or the workplace. Typical examples would include:

• Any condition caused by repetitive movements or inappropriate working positions.
• Skin conditions resulting from repeated exposures to particular agents such as cleaning products.
• Asthma or respiratory problems that could feasibly be attributable to workplace conditions or activities.

Other injury

Any other accident at work resulting in injury that cannot be described as work-related e.g. an injury resulting from a person being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Near miss

Any undesired event or condition where no injury, ill health, or damage occurs, but potentially could have. Examples would include:

• Any non-compliance with regulations that could have led to an accident.
• Unsafe conditions such as fire risks or faulty equipment, including failure of a control measure.
• Falling or flying objects that do not make contact with individuals or cause any significant property damage.
• Laboratory waste going into the wrong waste stream.
• Failure to adhere to any standard operating procedures or risk assessments.
• Failure identified by statutory testing, e.g. fume cupboard tests, testing equipment under a Written Scheme of Examination
• Failure of building facilities which cause a potential risk to building occupants e.g. lift entrapments, lack of water supply, room temperature problems etc.

Medical issue (not work-related)

Any incident that is not work-related and can be ascribed to a medical condition.

Property damage or other loss

Where property or equipment is damaged or some other form of loss occurs, but no injuries are sustained.

Sporting incident

Accidents occurring whilst undertaking sports activities on College premises, e.g. muscle strains, sporting injuries etc.

Level Two Categorisation (Optional – “None” can be selected from the dropdown. These can be edited later by Safety Personnel)

Reportable incident

Incidents which do not cause injury or ill health, but which are reportable to an enforcing authority such as the HSE or DEFRA.

Dangerous occurrence (RIDDOR Schedule 2 only)

These are very rare in the College and only include Dangerous Occurrences of the type listed under Schedule 2 of the RIDDOR Regulations. They are typically serious incidents including failure of lifting machinery or pressure vessels, explosions, and releases of biological agents.

Fire incident

Incidents where an actual fire occurs.

Security incident

Breach or potential breach of security such as theft of controlled materials or unauthorised access into restricted areas.

Environmental incident

Incidents relating to outside environmental conditions such as release of environmentally damaging materials.

Release of hazardous or controlled material (radioactive)

Release of radioactive material, either to outside the lab, or inside but outside of primary containment.

Release of hazardous or controlled material (biological)

Release of biological agents, either to outside the lab or inside, but outside of primary containment.

Release of hazardous or controlled material (chemical)

Release of a chemical, either to outside the lab, or inside but outside of primary containment.

Building/facility-related incident

Accidents and incidents which involve or affect any building or building-related infrastructure.

Examples include:

• Failure of ventilation systems
• Failure of heating systems
• Blocked fire escapes
• Fire alarms not working.

Work environment incident

Any accident relating to an undesirable working condition, such as foul odours, noise, or inappropriate lighting.

Site partner incident

An incident either in a site partner area, or involving a site partner’s personnel or equipment.

Imperial has a duty under the Building Safety Act 2022 to report the following type of incidents to the Building Safety Regulator:

• building safety incidents and risks that have caused, or if not remedied are likely to cause the death of or serious injury to a significant number of people.
• an aspect of the design related to structural integrity or fire risk, which if built could cause death or serious injury to a significant number of people.
• structural failure of a building.
• the spread of fire or smoke in a building.

Please report any incidents that may fall into these categories using the SALUS reporting system. For example:

• cladding falling off buildings.
• Failure of call points, alarms, fire doors and other fire safety controls
• Fire outbreaks due to faulty electrical wiring, gas leaks or other causes related to building infrastructure.
• Inadequate fire compartmentation or other structural defects.
• Unexpected failure or degradation of construction material.

Investigations will be undertaken as normal, and actions identified. The Safety Department will be responsible for formally reporting such incidents to the regulator within 10 days of the incident having been identified.

In the first instance, the person suffering the accident or observing the near miss should complete an online report form. The form can be accessed via the Salus link above (it is also accessible via the front page of the Safety Department website. In the case of an accident, if the person involved is unable to complete the form themselves, then a supervisor or colleague should do so.

What happens when I report an incident?

Once the incident has been reported, the person investigating should contact you within a few days. If you haven’t heard from anyone after a few days, please contact your departmental or faculty safety personnel. 

Note: All College staff and students who have a College log-on are able to access and complete the online form. The form is also accessible via VPN, so it is possible to complete a report from remote locations (e.g. fieldwork incidents) if necessary. Undergraduate medical students working in host institutions may use the alternative link to the Word form in the event that they are unable to access a College computer or log-on using VPN.

Please see powerpoint guidance on Reporting an Incident (ppt)

February 2004: First published.
March 2005: Amended.
December 2006: Amended (to include new definition of Near Miss).
August 2010: Amended (to include details of new e-mail address - incidentreporting@imperial.ac.uk).
October 2011: Amended (implementation of Salus online reporting).
April 2012: Amended (change to RIDDOR with regard to over-seven-day reporting).
October 2013: Amended (changes to RIDDOR with regard to simplification of reporting requirements introduced on 1 October).

October 2019: System configuration slightly modified, and moved to an external cloud server to facilitate quicker software fixes.