Operational aspects of mandatory occurrence reporting

Extract

I think I need say nothing more today about why we have a Mandatory Occurrence Reporting system; we have it and it has been working for well over a year. It has had the inevitable teething troubles, and we still have a long way to go before we get the level of reporting right and get the right balance in the frequency and quantity of information we re-publish. Nevertheless we can see many of the aims of the system being achieved or within sight of achievement. What has not changed significantly from the previous voluntary reporting system is the proportion—the very small proportion—of reports which reveal human error, especially reports by people who have themselves made errors. Human nature being what it is, there is a little less reluctance to report other people's errors!