Very few businesses can say with any confidence that they would be ready and able to swiftly and calmly respond to a serious workplace injury to an employee in the terrible event that one should occur.

Yet it is vitally important that they be able to do so, particularly in high risk industries.  Employers should ensure that everyone in the workplace is fully prepared to deal with an emergency situation should one ever happen.

Every workplace should have special health & safety procedures in place to enable quick and effective action to respond to an emergency situation safely and in a way that reduces the consequences to the injured person and other people involved.

An emergency plan should be prepared and recorded, and employees should be competent and properly trained in the health and safety procedures including taking part in a practice emergency response.

Other things to consider include the nomination of competent employees to deal with the situation, including an incident controller who can provide technical and other site specific information should it be required by emergency services.  The plan will need to consider the emergency shutdown of operations should it be necessary and will need to ensure that the site is safe before operations recommence.   

Once the site has been made safe and the injured person placed in the care of the emergency services, the business must turn its attention to dealing with the Health and Safety Executive who are likely to commence a formal health and safety investigation against the company. 

You should contact our Regulatory and Licensing Partner, James Lowe, on 07833 240400 if you have any questions regarding injury in the workplace or health and safety law.