Accidents and Incidents
Accidents Involving Third Parties

The BBC needs to know about accidents involving third parties so that:

Freelancers, agency staff, consultants and people in similar positions should report incidents to their BBC manager as if they were an employee and they should then be investigated as such by that manager.

 

Contracts should set out the extent to which independent production companies, service partners' contractors and suppliers ("Third Parties") are required to inform the BBC about accidents that occur during the course of their business with the BBC and how this should happen.

 

Third parties do not have to report every accident to the BBC and they do not have to use the BBCs accident reporting system although it may be appropriate for some contracts to make this a requirement.  As a minimum third Parties must provide the BBC with the details of any reportable incident [Link to definitions] arising out of the activity and the outcome of any subsequent investigation. BBC Safety will record these incidents on myRisks.

 

They must have processes and procedures to report and investigate accidents.

 

They must cooperate with any incident investigation carried out by the BBC and, where requested should investigate accidents to the standards set out in this guidance.  The BBC will reserve the right to investigate independently or jointly with the third party any accident arising out of or in connection with its business.

 

Safety forums will consider incidents and statistics about incidents involving contractors. Contract or project review meetings (or similar) should consider any accidents arising during the course of the work for the BBC.

 

Accident reporting and investigation processes and the history of incidents involving any third party will be taken into account when engaging them for future work and a poor record may form the grounds for terminating any relationship.