10 Feb Health and safety notifications

Farmcare have recently updated the information held within TOM on holdings where a previous health and safety incident has been reported. This now includes those holdings where an incident has been reported by APHA. This is indicated by a warning triangle appearing against the holding details and notes written within the holding record.

We still receive a very small number of reports, in fact only 10 reports across all of England in the year ending November 2022. Some patterns we have seen include a higher proportion of incidents reported in the Low-Risk Area and for tests on ‘orphan’ farms. Most reports we receive are where an accident has happened that resulted in physical injury, or abandoned tests, but we encourage reports to be made, via Task Completion in TOM, for all tests that were not completed as originally planned. This may be for reasons such as cattle escaping or insufficient help on farm, or even abusive or unpleasant behaviour from the keeper. Should you wish to notify us of an incident retrospectively, please contact our team on [email protected]