§ Brian CotterTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the progress being made by his Department in establishing the Incident Contact Centre. [117278]
§ Mr. Nicholas Brown[holding answer 9 June 2003]: The Incident Contact Centre (ICC) was successfully launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in April 2001 to process all statutory reports notified under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995.
HSE established the ICC as part of the Government's e-programme.
There has been a continued positive shift towards electronic reporting since the service was launched. The number of reports received by post has dropped from over 80 per cent. at the beginning to around 40 per cent. now, with a corresponding increase in the number of telephone reports from less than 10 per cent. initially to 25 per cent. in April 2003.