5. Government immediately mandate the Health and Safety Executive to work with National Governing Bodies of all sports to establish, by July 2022, a national framework for the reporting of sporting injuries. Within a year of the framework being published, all organised sports should be required to report any event that might lead to acquired brain injury.”
The Government agrees in part with this recommendation. The Government supports greater and more accurate recording of sports concussion incidents but believes that other organisations are better placed to collate and use this information than the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
HSE holds the policy lead for health and safety in sport and leisure, liaising with National Governing Bodies on relevant matters of interest and with other sporting bodies such as CIMSPA (Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity), Sport UK and UKactive. HSE looks to National Governing Bodies for advice on the relevant standards for equipment, rules of play, and training, this being their area of expertise. Health and Safety is a reserved matter insofar as Great Britain is concerned. HSE has no remit in this area in Northern Ireland..
Local Authorities are primarily responsible for enforcing The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) to the extent that it applies in sport (unless the activity itself falls under LA control, in which case it falls to HSE). Current policy is that sporting injuries sustained in the field of play are not reportable under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR).
HSE fully recognises the importance of the issues raised by the DCMS Select Committee in its report into Concussion in Sport. HSE is committed to a pragmatic, holistic, approach to the reduction of harm to sportspeople and recognises the key role of the reporting of injuries as a part of that process. HSE is fully prepared to work with National Governing Bodies, as well as other interested parties to assist in establishing a comprehensive reporting scheme providing meaningful data to improve health outcomes for sportspeople. HSE will also be willing to support in the drafting of, and endorse a code of practice for the management of head injuries in sport.
The Government will look into the feasibility of a national register of concussion incidents. To take this forward, the Government will convene the sports concussion research forum of sports and medical professionals to discuss the development of a standard framework for the recording of head injuries, and associated processes for the collation and analysis of this data.





