Ae444 Cheat Sheet

AE444 CHEAT SHEET

AE444
Introduced xx Aug 2014 / Environmental Incident Reporting and Management

Note: only asterisked (*) items are mandatory. They are identified here in red.

Part A – Notification

1. Incident type

You are able to select multiple incident types.
For full definitions, refer DNES
Incident – “an activity or omission that impacts the environment”
Near miss – “an activity or omission that did not impact the environment but could have”
Observation – “an unusual, unexpected or noteworthy occurrence of potential environmental significance… OR an idea that would improve the environmental performance of a Defence activity or asset”
Non-conformance – “an action or omission that did not meet Defence’s environmental operational controls including DIs, ECC, RSOs, SOPs, SOs, Base Instructions, EMS, etc., OR an action or omission that did not meet external conditions placed on Defence”
Complaint – “negative feedback relating to the environmental performance of Defence or Defence’s contractors or third parties”.
Major, Moderate and Minor definitions, refer Environmental Incidents homepage.

2. Location of incident

Select the Region the incident, near miss, observation, non-conformance or complaint) occurred in.
If the incident occurred across more than one Region, select one Region and describe the affected Regions in the ‘Location description’ field.
Select the Property name. These names are as per the DEMS database. The DEMS id will appear when you select a property if you wish to confirm you have the correct property.
Note: if the incident did not occur on a Defence Base or property, “non-Estate Training Area” should be selected. This is intended to cover incidents that occur in transit or from the air.
If you cannot find the correct property, you can check on DEMS or call your local Base Support, or you can select the nearest property and write the correct property in the ‘Location Description’.
In the ‘Location description’ field, you should include any information that will help someone else identify where the incident occurred and/or where it impacted.
If the incident occurred on a Defence or non-Defence Training Area, select ‘Yes’. This ensures we notify the DOTAMS and the RCO. If the incident occurred in the cantonment area of a Training Area, select ‘No’.
“GPS Location”: if you have access to GPS or map location details, you can include them here. It is important you select WGS or GDA if using a GPS. If the incident is an area rather than a point, describe this, together with any other further information about the source or other, in the “Data source” text box.

3. Time of incident

Date occurred: This is the day on which the incident occurred, or in the case of a multi-day incident (such as a leak) when the incident started. A calendar should pop-up for you to select on.
Time occurred: This is the approximate time the incident occurred. This field is free text to allow for description but the format should be in 24 hour clock if possible.
Date reported: This is when the incident was noticed and/or reported to the appropriate manager / supervisor / commander. This is intended to capture situations where there is a delay between when the incident occurred and when it was noticed or reported (there may be many reasons for the delay). The AE444 incident report that you submit will be date stamped automatically.
Time reported: This is the approximate timing of the incident being noticed and/or reported to appropriate manager / supervisor / commander.
Unknown / Not Applicable:
Sometimes the timing of the incident won’t be known, i.e. a leak
Some types of incidents won’t have a time component; for example, an observation or non-conformance relating to a process may be ‘on-going’.

4. Description of incident

‘Description’: this is the ‘what, when, who, where’ of the incident. Sufficient detail should be included here for a person reviewing the incident to gain a basic understanding of the background to the incident, what incident occurred, who was involved (whether directly, indirectly or as a bystander) and what the outcomes of the incident were.
‘An AC563 Defence Work Health Safety Incident Report form has been completed in relation to this incident’: if the incident resulted in a personal injury, this must be reported through Sentinel. If a WHS incident has been lodged, please report the reference number here. This allows us to easily link WHS incidents to Environmental incidents.
Note that the reference to AC563 is outdated and Sentinel is the appropriate reporting mechanism.

5. Intermediate response action(s) taken

This should briefly describe in sequence the emergency, and other, actions taken in response to the incident.
Note that you add actions to the table by clicking on the ‘Add row’ button under the table. Rows can be deleted by clicking on the ‘X’ button at the end of the row.
‘Action’ should briefly describe what was done
‘Person’ should describe who undertook the action
‘Date’ and ‘time’ should describe the approximate time at which the actions were undertaken

6. Parties notified of incident

The intent of this table is to identify personnel who have been informed of the incident (these people may have already been identified via the description or actions) and their contact details. This is to reduce duplication and to have the contact details of relevant people correct and quickly on hand.
‘Name’: the name of the person contacted
‘Position & unit / organisation’: this should identify the person’s relevant position and their company or unit/group within Defence to a relevant level of detail.
‘Contact details’: the best phone number(s) to contact this person on. If relevant, email address and/or postal or physical address should be included. When deciding what contact details to include, consider how you contacted the person and how they might need to be contacted in the future if the need arises. This table column can fit up to 100 characters.
‘Comment’: this column should include what information has been passed to this person.
Note that rows can be added to this table using the ‘Add row’ button.

7. Incident reporter

This table is to record the name contact details of the incident reporter (or the person who first notices the incident). In most circumstances this will be the same as the person submitting the form. As per Section 6, this ensures contact details are correct and quickly on hand.

8. Person completing this form

It is intended that the Incident Reporter will fill out this form, however in some circumstances, this may not be possible and a third party may fill out the form on behalf of the Incident Reporter.
The details of the person filling out the form should be recorded here.

Part B – Review

1. Incident type

You are able to select multiple incident types.
For full definitions, refer DNES
Incident – “an activity or omission that impacts the environment”
Near miss – “an activity or omission that did not impact the environment but could have”
Observation – “an unusual, unexpected or noteworthy occurrence of potential environmental significance… OR an idea that would improve the environmental performance of a Defence activity or asset”
Non-conformance – “an action or omission that did not meet Defence’s environmental operational controls including DIs, ECC, RSOs, SOPs, SOs, Base Instructions, EMS, etc., OR an action or omission that did not meet external conditions placed on Defence”
Complaint – “negative feedback relating to the environmental performance of Defence or Defence’s contractors or third parties”.
Major, Moderate and Minor definitions, refer DNES.

2. Location of incident

Select the Region the incident, near miss, observation, non-conformance or complaint) occurred in.
If the incident occurred across more than one Region, select one Region and describe the affected Regions in the ‘Location description’ field.
Select the Property name. These names are as per the DEMS database. The DEMS id will appear when you select a property if you wish to confirm you have the correct property.
Note: if the incident did not occur on a Defence Base or property, “non-Estate Training Area” should be selected. This is intended to cover incidents that occur in transit or from the air.
If you cannot find the correct property, you can check on DEMS or call your local Base Support.
In the ‘Location description’ field, you should include a detaileddescription of where the incident occurred.
If the incident occurred on a Defence or non-Defence Training Area, select ‘Yes’. This ensures we notify the DOTAMS and the RCO. If the incident occurred in the cantonment area of a Training Area, select ‘No’.
“GPS Location”: it may be possible to record this when reviewing the incident

3. Information about the incident

Two incident registersare maintained. The first register contains all data from all incidents and is only available to limited staff as required, such as Environmental and Base staff and EE Branch staff. Staff must request access to this register. The second register includes only a brief overview of each incident, including location, date, summary and status. This will be available to all DRN users.
‘Summary (To be available to DRN users on register)’ – when summarising the incident, Competent Persons should try provide a concise and factual statement minimising (or avoiding completely) the use of names and organisations.
‘Additional information’ – this is space for the Reviewer to add information about the incident that was not included in the Reporter’s, such as where the incident impacted.
Note that documents, photos, etc can be attached to the report at any stage using the button at the top right of the form ‘Add attachment’.
‘Applicable operational control(s)’ – this is space to identify any processes, approvals, plans, or directives controlling the activity/ies occurring when the incident took place. The control may or may not have been directly related to the incident. This will help people collating incident information to identify if there are certain types of controls that fail more (or other things).

4. If spill,

This section aims to gather information about pollution, spills, leaks and releases (intentional or not). If the incident does not involve the release of a contaminant, this section should be ignored.
‘Contained, did not impact environment’: if there was a spill but it occurred (for example) in a bunded area or on an impermeable surface, and the contaminant did not spill off that surface, there may not be any environmental impact. If there was no environmental impact, this incident may bereassessed as a ‘near miss’.
‘Release. Receiving environment(s)’: if the contaminant did impact the environment, i.e. it occurred in an open area, on a permeable surface or overflowed / drained out of a bunded area, the generic impacted or receiving environment(s) should be identified here. More than one may be selected if required.
‘Amount’: a numerical volume, area or amount of contaminant should be identified in this box, i.e. 5, 0.231, 360, etc.
‘Unit’: the unit related to the amount should be identified from this dropdown
‘Chemical / material’: select relevant contaminant. More than one contaminant may be selected (although volume, area or amount can only be selected for one contaminant). If the material spilled is not specifically in the list, please select the nearest material (if possible) and ‘other’ and type the specific material in the text box.

5. Environmental factors impacted

Environmental factors are defined as managed (or manageable) environmental items. They are distinct from the ‘receiving environment’ because they are specifically managed. All environmental factors impacted by the incident should be identified in this section.
‘Factor’ is the first grouping
‘Factor type’ is the sub-group of the factor
Note that more than one Factor / Factor type can be identified by clicking on the ‘Add row’ button under the dropdowns. Rows can be deleted by clicking on the ‘X’ button at the end of the Factor type dropdowns.

6. Parties notified of incident.

If any new parties or persons are notified at this stage, that weren’t identified in Part A of the form, these can be identified here.
The intent of this table is to reduce duplication and to have the contact details of relevant people correct and quickly on hand.
‘Name’: the name of the person contacted
‘Position & unit / organisation’: this should identify the person’s relevant position and their company or unit/group within Defence to a relevant level of detail.
‘Contact details’: the best phone number(s) to contact this person on. If relevant, email address and/or postal or physical address should be included. When deciding what contact details to include, consider how you contacted the person and how they might need to be contacted in the future if the need arises. This table column can fit up to 100 characters.
‘Comment’: this column should include what information has been passed to this person.
Note that rows can be added to this table.

7. Recommendation

If, based on their expertise, the Competent Person judges that the incident has been adequately dealt with and that all issues and impacts related to the incident have been resolved (to the extent possible), the incident can be closed at this stage.
If, based on their expertise, the Competent Person judges that there are issues and impacts that require further investigation, the Competent Person should agree on an Incident Manager with the relevant BSM. The Incident Manager should be identified here. Upon submission, the Incident Manager’s name should be added to the email circulation.

8. Person completing this form

It is intended that this is the Competent Person. Their details should be recorded here as they can become separated from the form once submitted.

Part C – Investigation and action

1. Contributing factors

This item aims to assist, simply, in identifying the factors that led to the incident. It is also known as a ‘root cause analysis’. The aim is that by identifying a range of contributing factors, solutions can be identified that will prevent the same or a similar incident from recurring.
Theitem contains a large number of possible contributing factors. When a box is selected, a second box containing ‘sub-factors’ pops up underneath.
Multiple factors and sub-factors may be selected.
There is no way to identify the relative importance of a contributing factor.
Ticking ‘Other’ provides a space to identify any contributing factors not in the long list. Users are encouraged to the use the list where possible.
‘Discussion’ – this space is for anycommentary on the selected contributing factors.

2. Related documents, other investigations

This is a text box to list the titles of any related documents, including separate investigations undertaken. Objective Ref numbers should be specified where possible.
Note that documents, photos, etc can be attached to the report at any stage using the button at the top right of the form ‘Add attachment’.

3. Tasking actions and outcomes

This item consists of two tables: an Actions table and an Outcomes table.
Action Number 1 (in the first ‘Actions’ table)should correspond to Outcome Number 1 (in the second ‘Outcomes’ table).
Corrective and Preventative Actions should be recorded in the first table. (Action owners will need to be tasked separately)
The outcomes of the Actions should be recorded in the second table.

4. Incident close-out

Incident debrief files, minutes or other can be recorded here
If lessons learnt are developed, shared or addressed in another manner, a reference to the file, minutes or presentation can be entered

5. Person completing this form

It is intended that this is the Incident Manager. Their details should be recorded here as they can become separated from the form once submitted.

6. Incident response complete

This item is used to show that the environmental manager and the Estate manager are satisfied that the incident record can be closed.
The environmental manager should select the appropriate title and use the digital signature
The Estate manager should select the appropriate title and use the digital signature.
In the event that the relevant manager(s) do(es) not have a DRN signature, the form should be saved and manually emailed, with ‘Incident Closed’ in the header, to the Environmental Incidents mailbox: and other relevant stakeholders.