Safety and Health Records, Reporting and Documentation
Domain 9 tests record discipline: what must be kept, for how long, who may see it, and how data become a reported indicator rather than a filing cabinet.
Record families
- Statutory inspection reports: scaffolds, excavations, lifting equipment, LEV and pressure systems.
- Training and competence records, including assessment outcomes.
- Risk assessments, method statements and permits, under version control.
- Incident and near-miss register with corrective actions and close-out.
- Exposure monitoring and health surveillance records, held confidentially and separately.
- Maintenance logs, audit reports, toolbox talk and consultation minutes.
Reporting
Internal escalation by severity, and statutory reporting of defined categories such as fatalities, specified injuries, dangerous occurrences and absences beyond a set number of days, within the required timeframe.
Performance measures
Lost time injury frequency rate = (number of lost time injuries x 1,000,000) / hours worked.
Worked example
A site records 3 lost time injuries across 480,000 hours. Frequency rate = (3 x 1,000,000) / 480,000 = 6.25 per million hours. Reasoning: the numerator must use the same injury definition as the denominator's population and period, and the hours must be actual hours worked, not headcount. Comparing this figure with another project using a different injury definition is meaningless.
Traps
Mixing headcount with hours worked; comparing rates built on different definitions; filing medical records with personnel files; recording incidents without action close-out; uncontrolled document versions on site; keeping records beyond or below the required retention period.