Does the incident involve injuries and fatalities?
If the incident involves a serious health and safety issue, or if employees and/or members of the public may have been put at risk by an environmental incident or protester action, the prospect of injuries or fatalities should be considered.
Under these circumstances, keep the following in mind:
- consider whether the full effects of the incident, and any associated potential impact on human health, may take time to develop (see Assessing the nature of the incident)
- liaise and cooperate with the emergency services, as appropriate (see Working with the emergency services)
- consider whether formal notifications need to be made (see Reporting the incident to the appropriate parties)
- within hours of the incident taking place, prepare for the possibility of investigations by regulators and/or police - these could involve formal interviews, or otherwise giving statements/information (both voluntarily and under compulsion), as well as seizure of evidence
- the competent authorities may issue directions to "leave undisturbed", prohibiting activities that may destroy or interfere with evidence
- identify all employees or other personnel (eg contractors) who may be witnesses or otherwise hold information which may be relevant to the incident; consider conducting interviews of personnel who may have first-hand knowledge of the incident and/or of events leading to it
- do not release details of those injured or killed until next of kin have been informed (see Dealing with employees and next of kin)
- consider whether appropriate steps can be taken to ensure legal and/or litigation privilege can be asserted over documents (see Document control and securing privilege)
- consider potential media issues arising and adopt an appropriate media strategy (see Media relations)
- keep a record of steps taken in dealing with the incident, including actions by third parties and/or emergency services (all documentary evidence should be preserved, including handwritten diary notes and memos - consideration should be given to issuing a "document hold" notice to persons who may hold any potentially relevant documentary evidence, not only in paper form but also emails and other electronic records) (see What is a document?)
