RIDDOR reporting: what must be reported, by when, and by whom

01

What RIDDOR is, and the law behind it

RIDDOR is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1471), in force in Great Britain since 1 October 2013. HSE's leaflet Reporting accidents and incidents at work (INDG453) describes it as the law that requires employers, and other people in control of work premises, to report and keep records of work-related deaths, certain serious injuries, diagnosed cases of certain industrial diseases and certain dangerous occurrences.

The duty falls on the responsible person, defined in regulation 3. For an injury to an employee, that is the employer. For an injury to someone not at work, such as a visitor, customer or pupil, it is the person who, by carrying on an undertaking, was in control of the premises at the time. Gas suppliers and Gas Safe registered engineers have their own duties.

A report goes to the relevant enforcing authority. INDG453 explains that reports inform the enforcing authorities, which are HSE, local authorities and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), and that a report made through HSE's online forms goes directly to the RIDDOR database.

The report tells the regulator that something happened so it can decide whether to investigate and where risks are arising. It is not an assessment of fault. HSE's RIDDOR explained page says that whether an incident is reportable does not depend on finding blame. RIDDOR reporting is a legal duty in its own right, separate from the wider health and safety duty to prevent the accident in the first place.

02

What must be reported under RIDDOR

Two tests apply to an accident. It must be work-related, and the outcome must be one of the reportable kinds. HSE treats an accident as a separate, identifiable, unintended incident that causes physical injury, and this specifically includes acts of non-consensual physical violence to people at work. In deciding whether it was work-related, INDG453 says to consider whether the accident was related to:

• the way the work was organised, carried out or supervised;
• any machinery, plant, substances or equipment used for work; and
• the condition of the site or premises where the accident happened.

If none of these is relevant, a report is probably not required. HSE's examples of reportable incidents contrast a restaurant customer scalded by staff serving hot soup, which is reportable, with a customer who knocks their own bowl over, which is not. In a building, the condition of the premises is the factor that matters most: a floor left wet without a sign, a damaged stair nosing, a badly lit car park.

Where the accident passes that test, these outcomes are reportable:

• Deaths of workers and non-workers resulting from a work-related accident, including an act of physical violence to a worker. Suicides are not reportable.
• Specified injuries to workers, listed in regulation 4: a fracture diagnosed by a doctor, other than to a finger, thumb or toe; amputation of an arm, hand, finger, thumb, leg, foot or toe; an injury diagnosed by a doctor as likely to cause permanent blinding or reduction in sight in one or both eyes; a crush injury to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs; serious burns covering more than 10% of the body or damaging the eyes, respiratory system or other vital organs; any scalping needing hospital treatment; loss of consciousness caused by a head injury or asphyxia; and any other injury from working in an enclosed space that leads to hypothermia or heat-induced illness, or needs resuscitation or admission to hospital for more than 24 hours.
• Over-seven-day injuries: a worker away from work, or unable to do their normal work, for more than seven consecutive days because of the accident. The day of the accident does not count; weekends and rest days do.
• Injuries to people not at work, under regulation 5: a member of the public, visitor, customer or volunteer who is injured in a work-related accident and taken from the scene to hospital for treatment of that injury. Being taken to hospital purely as a precaution, with no apparent injury, does not count, and HSE says examinations and diagnostic tests such as X-rays are not treatment. At a hospital, only a specified injury to a non-worker is reportable.
• Occupational diseases diagnosed by a doctor and likely to have been caused or worsened by work, including carpal tunnel syndrome, occupational dermatitis, hand-arm vibration syndrome, occupational asthma, any occupational cancer and any disease attributed to an occupational exposure to a biological agent.
• Dangerous occurrences: specified near-miss events listed in Schedule 2. HSE's dangerous occurrences page lists those that apply to all workplaces, including the collapse or overturning of any lifting equipment, such as a lift, or the failure of a load-bearing part, and an electrical short circuit or overload that causes a fire or explosion and puts the equipment out of action for more than 24 hours.

Regulation 14 exempts some deaths and injuries, including those from medical or dental treatment and most road traffic accidents on public roads.

03

RIDDOR deadlines, and how to make a report

The clock depends on the kind of incident. HSE's page When do I need to report an incident? sets these out:

• Deaths and specified injuries to workers, injuries to non-workers taken to hospital, and dangerous occurrences: notify the enforcing authority without delay, and a report must be received within 10 days of the incident (Schedule 1 to the Regulations).
• Over-seven-day injuries: report within 15 days of the accident, under regulation 4(2). Because the injury becomes reportable only on the eighth day off, the 15 days give time to find out how long the worker is away.
• Occupational diseases: report as soon as the responsible person receives a doctor's diagnosis.
• A later death: if an employee dies within one year of a reportable accident as a result of the injury, the employer must notify the enforcing authority without delay, whether or not the injury was reported, under regulation 6.

To report, HSE's page How to make a RIDDOR report offers online forms for an injury, a dangerous occurrence, a case of disease, a flammable gas incident and a dangerous gas fitting. Choose the form that matches the event. When it is submitted you can download a copy for your records, which HSE accepts as your record of the report.

Fatal accidents and specified injuries to workers can also be reported by telephone to the Incident Contact Centre on 0345 300 9923; everything else is reported online. HSE says that it and local authority enforcement officers are not an emergency service, and outside office hours a less serious incident is reported online.

If something changes after you have reported, such as an injury that later proves fatal, HSE's guidance on amending RIDDOR notifications says to call the Incident Contact Centre with the original incident reference number, or submit a duplicate form online stating the reference at the start of the description.

04

Who reports in a building with several employers

Most commercial buildings have more than one employer on site: the occupier, a facilities management company, cleaning and security contractors, maintenance engineers. Visitors and members of the public pass through too. RIDDOR follows the person, not the building, so who reports depends on who was hurt:

• A contractor's employee, such as a cleaner who slips in a client's office: the cleaning company reports, because it is the employer. The client may hold the facts about the premises, so the two need to share them quickly.
• A visitor, customer, pupil or other member of the public taken to hospital: the person in control of the premises at the time, by carrying on its undertaking there. In a multi-let office that may be the occupier for its own floor and the landlord or managing agent for the common parts.
• A dangerous occurrence, such as a lift failure: the person in control of the premises where it happened.
• Agency workers: HSE's page Who should report under RIDDOR asks agencies to make sure responsibility for reporting is clearly assigned, which in practice means agreeing it with the client in writing.
• A self-employed person who suffers a specified injury or an over-seven-day injury on premises someone else controls: the person in control of those premises reports, so the self-employed person should make sure they know about it.

Where the boundaries blur, each party may assume another has reported. Agree in the contract or the site's health and safety arrangements who reports which incidents, and how contractors and the premises manager tell each other about an accident. Schools have their own HSE guidance, Incident reporting in schools (EDIS1), which notes that most incidents in schools or on school trips do not need to be reported.

The over-seven-day rule needs a practical arrangement. The employer knows how long its worker is off; the site may not. A contractor should follow up any injury to its own staff and report within 15 days if the absence runs past seven days.

05

The records RIDDOR requires, and what an investigation asks for

Reporting and recording are separate duties. Under regulation 12 the responsible person must keep a record of:

• every reportable death, injury and dangerous occurrence;
• every reportable diagnosis of disease;
• every injury that keeps a worker off work, or unable to do their normal work, for more than three consecutive days, not counting the day of the accident but including weekends and rest days. These over-three-day injuries are recorded, not reported, unless the absence goes past the seven-day reporting threshold.

Each entry must be kept for at least three years from the date it was made, at the place where the work is carried on or at the responsible person's usual place of business, and produced when an inspector from HSE or the local authority asks. HSE's page What records do I need to keep? lists the particulars when you do not keep the downloaded copy of the form: the date and method of reporting, the date, time and place of the event, personal details of those involved, and a brief description of the event or disease.

Separately, under regulation 25 of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979, an employer who normally employs 10 or more people at the same time at the same premises must keep an accident book, on paper or electronically, keeping each entry for at least three years. HSE says that accident book can serve as the RIDDOR record of injuries, though diseases need a separate record.

When an inspector or an insurer looks into a reportable accident, they usually want to know what the premises were like at the time: whether the spill was reported and when, whether the wet floor sign was out, when the area was last checked, and whether the defect had been noticed before. That evidence comes from the building's day-to-day records, not the RIDDOR form, and it carries most weight when it was written at the time.

HSE's leaflet calls these records a valuable management tool and an aid to risk assessment. Review reportable and recorded accidents together with health and safety inspection checklist findings and near misses to see where the same hazard keeps hurting people.

06

Where the record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

The RIDDOR form is usually filled in well enough. What is weak is everything around it. The floor was cleaned at some point that morning, according to a sheet on the back of a door signed for the whole shift in advance. The leaking roof light that caused the puddle was mentioned to a security officer the week before, who told whoever was passing. When the investigation asks when the area was last checked and whether the hazard was known, nobody can say.

SiteClara keeps that day-to-day record for the building. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, sits at each location where a check is scheduled, such as an entrance, a washroom, a stairwell or a car park. Staff scan or tap on their own phone, with no app to install, see the checks due there, and mark each one done or explain what stopped them. The time and the named person are recorded as it happens, with a photo when one is asked for, and a hazard someone reports, such as a leak or a loose stair tread, goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it.

Each day the supervisor reviews what was due, done, missed and still open and approves a report that goes to nominated management or client contacts at 8am the next morning. After an accident, the premises manager and the employer have a record made at the time of what was checked at that location, by whom and when, and what happened to a reported hazard.

07

Questions people ask

What types of incidents must be reported under RIDDOR?

HSE's page Types of reportable incidents groups them into four: reportable injuries (including deaths, specified injuries and over-seven-day injuries), occupational diseases, dangerous occurrences and gas incidents.

How many days do you have to report a RIDDOR?

For a death, a specified injury to a worker, an injury to a non-worker taken to hospital or a dangerous occurrence, HSE's page When do I need to report an incident? says the enforcing authority must be notified without delay and a report received within 10 days. An over-seven-day injury must be reported within 15 days of the incident, and an occupational disease as soon as the responsible person receives a diagnosis.

Do weekends count towards the over-seven-day period?

Yes. HSE's page Types of reportable incidents says the seven-day period does not include the day of the accident but does include weekends and rest days, including days the injured person would not normally have worked, when deciding whether they were unable to do their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days.

Can an employee report their own injury under RIDDOR?

Not as a RIDDOR report, unless they are self-employed and the duty falls on them. HSE's page Who should report under RIDDOR says reports should be made only by the responsible person, and that an injured worker should tell their employer. A worker who thinks an incident has not been reported should ask their employer or their employee or union representative first, and can then raise the concern with HSE.

Does a RIDDOR report mean someone was to blame?

No. HSE's page RIDDOR explained says that deciding whether an accident is reportable does not depend on finding blame.

08

Further reading, and a list to take away

HSE's RIDDOR pages cover the types of reportable incident, specified injuries, dangerous occurrences, exemptions and worked examples, and INDG453 is a short summary to give supervisors. Schools should read EDIS1. In Northern Ireland, read HSENI's guidance and the 1997 Regulations.

Before the next accident, check that:

• supervisors, premises managers and site staff know the reportable categories and the 10 and 15 day deadlines;
• it is written down who reports for each employer on site, including contractors, agency workers and members of the public;
• someone follows up each injured worker so an over-seven-day absence is reported in time;
• over-three-day injuries are recorded even though they are not reported;
• a copy of every report is kept for at least three years, with access limited to those who need it;
• routine checks and reported hazards are recorded at the time, so the condition of the premises can be shown after an accident.