Reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations (RIDDOR)

What does RIDDOR mean?

RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Deadly Occurrences Regulations. In UK health and safety law it refers to the statutory responsibility that employers have to report and record all workplace accidents and incidents. RIDDOR ensures that the relevant bodies, such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or local authority, are informed whenever a workplace accident occurs and that compliance under wider health and safety law is maintained.

What should be reported under RIDDOR?

Under RIDDOR, employers have a duty to report on various workplace incidents and accidents. Accidents, as defined in health and safety law, are separate and distinct incidents that are unintended but result in injury. This includes fatalities, injuries, occupational diseases and other dangerous incidents that could result in harm to employees. RIDDOR requires employers to report accidents even if there has been no clear violation of health and safety law or no one has been identified as being at fault.

Specific injuries that must be reported include fractures, amputations, sight loss and burns, as well as other injuries as outlined by the HSE. You must also record and report non-fatal but serious injuries that happen to anyone in your workplace who isn’t an employee, for example a customer or volunteer.

What is the responsibility of employers under RIDDOR?

Employers, or ‘responsible persons’, are required by law to report any work-related incident, according to RIDDOR. This covers self-employed individuals. Employers can fill out an online form to file a report, or they can call the HSE.

In addition, your organisation might consider using digital incident reporting software to log all incidents and accidents. Intuitive dashboards can also enable your organisation to track the number of RIDDOR reportable incidents over any time period. 

What is the responsibility of employees under RIDDOR?

While employers have a legal duty to comply with RIDDOR, they also have responsibilities when it comes to recording and reporting accidents. If an employee witnesses an accident or dangerous incident but is not injured themselves, they should report it to their employer or a designated member of management as soon as possible. While employees don’t have a legal responsibility under RIDDOR, encouraging proactive reporting is a key part of maintaining a  positive workplace safety culture

What happens if you report a RIDDOR late?

In most cases, you must report an incident to the HSE within 10 days of the incident taking place. This goes up to 15 days if an accident results in a worker being unable to work for more than 7 days. You can make a report by submitting an online form or by phone for fatal or major incidents only.

If you don’t report an incident within the correct timeframe, you leave yourself open to legal action. Non-reporting can result in fines or even imprisonment in the most serious of cases. More broadly, failure to report an accident on time could mean that opportunities for hazard reduction or changes to safety procedures are missed, risking the possibility of another incident happening.  

How can Notify help you monitor RIDDOR?

Keeping on top of your RIDDOR reportable incidents is key for HSE compliance. Notify’s comprehensive health and safety technology makes it quick and easy for your frontline workers to report all safety incidents – including RIDDOR reportable incidents, in your workplace. We can help users identify occurrences that match the RIDDOR reporting criteria, making it easier to recognise reportable events.

With Notify’s interactive safety intelligence dashboards, you can quickly get an overview of how many RIDDOR-reportable incidents have occurred in a certain timeframe. You can also check your Accident Frequency Rate and compare data to determine if your safety initiatives have lowered the rate. You can also track the volume of incidents by department or location to determine hot spots and to prioritise improvement initiatives. 

Our document management module also serves as a central repository for incident investigation information, which will be required when completing the RIDDOR form on the HSE website.With our digital tools you can take a deeper dive into your reporting stats. You can see how many days have been lost to incidents or how your proactive steps have made positive changes to your workplace’s health and safety. To find out more about how Notify can help you proactively comply with RIDDOR, start your free trial today.