AI System for Classifying Near-Miss Reports by Risk

The problem

When incident text, photographs, locations and equipment records are held in separate sources, their fields must be matched by hand before a risk class draft can be prepared.

The health and safety specialist must compare every suggestion in the risk class draft with its source record; missing or conflicting evidence must not replace the final decision.

If an incident containing several hazards is not set aside for review, a serious hazard could be given a low priority; the record must not proceed without a human decision.

What we set out to improve

• Time taken for a risk class draft and its supporting evidence to reach the health and safety specialist for review
• How records set aside for human review because one incident contains several hazards are resolved
• Number of suggestions corrected after identifying a risk that a serious hazard could be given a low priority

How the system works

1. 01 Retrieve the incident text, photograph, location and equipment record from permitted sources using the record identifier
2. 02 Link source, date and version information to the shared work record
3. 03 Validate fields and units
4. 04 Prepare the risk class draft with its supporting evidence
5. 05 Check for an exception: one incident contains several hazards
6. 06 Have the health and safety specialist accept, revise or reject the suggestion
7. 07 Record the approved decision and its source in the processing log

Methods we used

• A source-identified common data schema for incident text, photographs, locations and equipment records
• A decision structure that separates deterministic rules from AI suggestions
• A review screen showing the risk class draft alongside the underlying source evidence
• A mandatory human review queue when one incident contains several hazards
• An event identifier that prevents duplicate processing

Where people stay involved

Data and security

Only the fields required for this decision should be processed from incident text, photographs, locations and equipment records. Access to the source systems must be authorised separately from the health and safety specialist role, and personal data, commercial information and technical secrets must not be passed into the model context unnecessarily. Reading, suggestions and human decisions must be logged separately.

Who this suits

Frequently asked questions