If a group of employees decides to set up a weekly lunchtime sports event e.g. indoor soccer, off campus, and the participants pay the local Club a nominal sum to cover their insurance liability and a staff member receives a sports injury at this lunchtime event, is this a reportable incident for the company under Health & Safety legislation? Do you have any general advice in relation to ‘unofficial’ staff activities?

The Health and Safety General Applications Regulations 2007 set out the circumstances in which an employer should report an accident to the Health and Safety Authority.

In general, where a person is injured at a place of work and cannot perform their normal work for more than three consecutive days, not including the day of the accident, the accident must be reported. Accidents related to a place of work or a work activity where a person requires treatment from a medical practitioner are reportable.

If an employee is injured at a lunch time sports event which the employer has not authorised, away from the place of work, this is not, strictly speaking, an accident at work and is not