First aid, accidents and ill health

Introduction

You must have first aid arrangements in your workplace, as you are responsible for making sure that your employees receive immediate attention if they are taken ill or are injured at work.

Under health and safety law, you must also report and keep a record of certain injuries, incidents and cases of work-related disease.

This guide gives an overview of first aid provision, which incidents you must report and how records should be kept.

First aid provision and reporting accidents and ill health

First aid

You must have first-aid arrangements in your workplace.

You are responsible for making sure that your employees receive immediate attention if they are taken ill or are injured at work. Accidents and illness can happen at any time and first aid can save lives and prevent minor injuries from becoming major ones.

Your arrangements will depend on the particular circumstances in your workplace and you need to assess what your first-aid needs are.

As a minimum, you must have:

  • a suitably stocked first-aid box
  • an appointed person to take charge of first-aid arrangements
  • information for all employees giving details of first-aid arrangements

You might decide that you need a first-aider. This is someone who has been trained by an approved organisation and holds a qualification in first aid at work or emergency first aid at work.

You can download guidance on first aid at work and assessing your first aid needs from the Health and Safety Works NI (HSWNI) website (PDF, 146K).

You can also find general first aid guidance on the HSWNI website.

Accidents and ill health

Under health and safety law, you must report and keep a record of certain injuries, incidents and cases of work-related disease.

You can download guidance on which injuries, incidents and work-related disease cases must be reported by law and how to report them on the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) website (PDF, 694K).

Keeping records will help you to identify patterns of accidents and injuries, and will help when completing your risk assessment. Your insurance company may also want to see your records if there is a work-related claim.

Remember:

  • Make sure you protect people’s personal details by storing records confidentially in a secure place.
  • If you have more than 10 employees, or own or occupy a mine, quarry or factory, you must keep an accident book under social security law.
  • You can buy an accident book or record the details in your own record system.