RIDDOR Explained: What Employers Must Report, and When

RIDDOR is the law that makes employers report serious workplace incidents to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). You must report work-related deaths, specified serious injuries (such as most fractures, amputations and serious burns), injuries that keep a worker off normal duties for more than seven days, members of the public taken straight to hospital, certain occupational diseases, and listed dangerous occurrences. Deaths and specified injuries must be notified without delay; over-seven-day injuries within 15 days. Most reports are made online through the HSE website.

RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. The duty falls on the "responsible person": normally the employer, or the self-employed person, or whoever controls the premises where the work happens.

What you must report

1. Deaths

Any work-related death, of a worker or a non-worker, except suicides.

2. Specified injuries to workers

• Fractures, other than to fingers, thumbs and toes
• Amputations of an arm, hand, finger, thumb, leg, foot or toe
• Injuries likely to cause permanent loss of sight or reduction in sight
• Crush injuries to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs
• Serious burns (covering more than 10 per cent of the body, or damaging the eyes, respiratory system or other vital organs)
• Scalpings requiring hospital treatment
• Loss of consciousness caused by a head injury or asphyxia
• Injuries from working in an enclosed space leading to hypothermia or heat-induced illness, or requiring resuscitation or admission to hospital for more than 24 hours

3. Over-seven-day injuries

A worker is away from work, or cannot do their normal duties, for more than seven consecutive days because of a work accident. The day of the accident does not count; weekends and rest days do.

4. Members of the public

Non-workers who are injured in a work-related accident and taken directly from the scene to hospital for treatment. Being taken to hospital purely as a precaution, with no treatment given, is not reportable.

5. Occupational diseases

When a doctor diagnoses certain conditions likely to have been caused or made worse by work, including carpal tunnel syndrome, occupational dermatitis, hand-arm vibration syndrome, occupational asthma, tendonitis of the hand or forearm, severe cramp of the hand or forearm, any occupational cancer, and diseases caused by exposure to a biological agent.

6. Dangerous occurrences

Specified near misses that could have caused serious harm, even if nobody was hurt: for example the collapse or failure of lifting equipment, certain electrical incidents causing fire or explosion, and the accidental release of substances that could cause harm.

Deadlines at a glance

What happened	When to act	Report or record?
Death or specified injury	Notify without delay; report within 10 days	Report
Worker off more than 7 days	Within 15 days of the accident	Report
Worker off more than 3 days (up to 7)	Record it	Record only
Member of the public taken to hospital for treatment	Without delay	Report
Occupational disease diagnosed	As soon as you receive a written diagnosis	Report
Dangerous occurrence	Without delay; report within 10 days	Report

Report, or record only? Five quick scenarios

• An office worker trips and breaks a wrist. A fracture (not a finger, thumb or toe) is a specified injury: report it.
• A warehouse operative strains their back and is off for five days. Over three days but not over seven: record it; do not report.
• The same operative is still off on day nine. It has now passed seven consecutive days: report it within 15 days of the original accident.
• A customer slips in your shop and an ambulance takes them to A&E, where they are treated. A member of the public taken straight to hospital for treatment: report it.
• A colleague faints at their desk and recovers after first aid. Not work-related in the RIDDOR sense and no specified injury: no report, although a note in your accident book is good practice.

How to report

Almost everything is reported online using the forms on HSE's RIDDOR website. There is a telephone service for fatal and specified injuries only. Keep a copy of every report.

What to keep

Keep a record of every reportable incident, plus over-three-day injuries, for at least three years. Employers with 10 or more staff must also keep an accident book. Both should be handled in line with UK GDPR. Where RIDDOR fits in your wider arrangements is covered in what a first aid policy should include.

Where first aid fits

RIDDOR tells HSE about serious incidents after the event; first aid is what happens in the minutes before help arrives, and it can change how serious the outcome is. Your trained first aiders are also usually the people who record what happened and hand over to the person responsible for reporting. We train workplace first aiders on site across London in Emergency First Aid at Work (£550 per session) and First Aid at Work (£1,500 per session), for up to 12 staff, with no VAT to add and nothing to pay to book.

This article is general guidance, not legal advice. Always check HSE's RIDDOR guidance for the full lists and definitions. Request a free quote for your team's first aid training.