Near Miss Register

Report the near miss below: the type, the what-happened, the potential outcome, the immediate action — then it is added to the register, and the tally by type shows the pattern. The trend section is the point: the near-miss ratio (the near misses to the recordable incidents) is the leading indicator, and the register is the data it is built from.

How to use the tool

1. Report the near miss — the date, the location, the type, the what-happened in one factual paragraph
2. Name the potential outcome — the injury or the damage that was the close call; the potential is what sets the priority
3. Record the immediate action — what stopped it, what was done right away
4. Add it to the register — the tool logs it with the date, the type and the status
5. Review the trend — the tally by type and the ratio: the pattern is the message, and the management review acts on it

Worked example

A month in a warehouse, 11 near misses logged: 4 slips (the same wet patch by the dock, three times — the fourth is the one the drain fix catches), 3 vehicle (the forklift and the pedestrian, the same crossing), 2 dropped objects (the mezzanine, no net), 1 electrical (the damaged lead, found before the use), 1 other. The immediate actions closed the same day; the corrective: the drain (the slip cluster), the barrier at the crossing (the vehicle cluster), the net below the mezzanine (the dropped cluster). The trend: 11 near misses to 0 recordables this month — the ratio is the leading indicator, and the clusters are the actions. The register that is read is the register that changes the site; the one that is filed is the one that is decoration.

Standard & legal context

The UK RIDDOR does not require the near-miss report to the HSE (the dangerous occurrences are the reportable near-miss-equivalents), but the HSEs own practice and the IOSH and NEBOSH training treat the near-miss register as the core of the leading-indicator system. ISO 45001 clause 10.2 requires the investigation of the incidents including the near misses — the explicit duty. The US practice (the OSHA guidance, the process safety standard incident review) carries the same logic. The register below is the UK practice with the ISO 45001 framing.

Common mistakes

1. Reporting only the injuries — a register with only the recordables is the lagging indicator wearing a hat; the near misses are the leading data
2. Potential: unknown — the potential is the judgement that sets the priority; unknown is the near miss that gets no action
3. No cluster reading — the four slips at the same patch are one problem, not four; the tally by location and type is how the cluster is seen
4. Closing the immediate action and not the corrective — the wet patch mopped is the immediate; the drain is the corrective, and the register tracks both