Understanding RIDDOR
Last updated: 7 September 2026
Author: Jade Anderson, Senior Reporter, UK-Safety.News
Reading time: about 12 minutes
What this guide covers
- Why RIDDOR matters
- A short history: 1995 to 2013
- Who is the responsible person?
- Deaths
- Specified injuries to workers
- Over seven day injuries
- Injuries to people who are not at work
- Occupational diseases
- Dangerous occurrences (Schedule 2)
- Gas incidents
- Exemptions: what is not reportable
- How and when to report
- Record keeping
- Enforcing authorities: HSE, local authority or ORR
- Is it reportable? A decision table
- Case study: the report that arrived two months late
- Common mistakes
- Frequently asked questions
- Further resources
Why RIDDOR matters
RIDDOR turns individual workplace accidents into national data. Every report feeds the enforcing authority’s picture of where people are being hurt and where inspection should be targeted. In 2024/25, 59,219 non fatal injuries to employees were reported to HSE under RIDDOR, and those reports underpin the annual health and safety statistics for Great Britain.
For an organisation the regulations set a legal duty to report specific events, a parallel duty to keep records (including of some injuries that are not reported), and a trigger for inspector contact. Failing to report is a criminal offence in its own right under regulations made under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and it is prosecuted alongside the underlying safety failure. The regulations look complicated because they also cover mines, quarries, offshore installations and railways, but for most employers only a handful of provisions ever apply.
A short history: 1995 to 2013
The current regulations are the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1471), in force from 1 October 2013. They replaced RIDDOR 1995, which had applied since 1 April 1996 and which many people still have in mind when they talk about “major injuries” and “over three day injuries”.
Two changes matter for anyone whose training predates 2013. On 6 April 2012 the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences (Amendment) Regulations 2012 raised the absence threshold for reporting from more than three to more than seven consecutive days, extended the deadline for that report from 10 to 15 days, and made over three day injuries recordable rather than reportable. Then, on 1 October 2013, the new regulations replaced the “major injuries” list with a shorter list of “specified injuries”, replaced the schedule of 47 industrial diseases with eight categories of reportable work related illness, and reduced the number of dangerous occurrences that require reporting; HSE’s leaflet INDG453 summarises these changes and confirms that recording requirements stayed broadly the same.
Who is the responsible person?
RIDDOR places its duties on the “responsible person”, defined in regulation 3. Only the responsible person should submit a report. HSE is explicit that injured people, members of the public and others without duties under RIDDOR should not use the reporting system.
| Situation | Responsible person |
|---|---|
| Injury, death or dangerous occurrence involving an employee | That employee’s employer |
| Injury or death of a self employed person, or of someone not at work (public, visitor, patient, pupil) | The person who, by carrying on an undertaking, was in control of the premises where it happened |
| Any other dangerous occurrence | The person in control of the premises |
| Occupational disease diagnosed in an employee | The employer |
| Occupational disease diagnosed in a self employed person | The self employed person |
| Self employed person injured on premises they control | The self employed person or someone acting for them; no initial notification is required |
| Mines, quarries, pipelines, wells, offshore installations, diving projects | The manager, operator, licensee, duty holder or diving contractor respectively |
| Gas incidents and dangerous gas fittings | The gas distributor, filler, importer or supplier; the Gas Safe registered engineer who finds the fitting |
So a contractor’s employee injured on your site is reported by the contractor, but a self employed contractor injured there is reported by you. On shared sites, write down who reports what in advance; see our guide to managing contractors under CDM 2015.
Two definitions that decide most cases
An accident is “a separate, identifiable, unintended incident that causes physical injury”. It includes non consensual physical violence to a worker, but not gradual exposures or ill health with no identifiable event.
An accident is work related if it arose out of or in connection with work: HSE looks at whether the way the work was organised, carried out or supervised, any machinery, plant, substance or equipment used for work, or the condition of the site or premises played a part. Fault is irrelevant.
Deaths
Regulation 6 requires the death of any person, worker or not, to be reported if it resulted from a work related accident. Suicides are excluded. Deaths from occupational exposure to a biological agent are also reportable.
A follow on duty is often missed: if an employee suffers a reportable injury and dies within one year as a result, the employer must notify the enforcing authority without delay, whether or not the original injury was reported. A self employed person who dies on premises they control is outside regulation 6.
Specified injuries to workers
Regulation 4(1) lists the injuries to a person at work that are reportable whatever the length of absence. HSE’s interpretation follows each item.
- Fractures, other than to fingers, thumbs and toes. All others count once diagnosed or confirmed by a doctor, including on a GP fit note.
- Amputation of an arm, hand, finger, thumb, leg, foot or toe, whether traumatic or surgical following an injury.
- Any injury likely to lead to permanent loss of sight or reduction in sight in one or both eyes, where a doctor diagnoses a permanent effect.
- Any crush injury to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs in the chest or abdomen.
- Serious burns, including scalding, covering more than 10% of the body’s total surface area or causing significant damage to the eyes, respiratory system or other vital organs. Heat, chemical and radiological burns all count.
- Any scalping requiring hospital treatment.
- Any loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia, however brief.
- Any other injury arising from working in an enclosed space which leads to hypothermia or heat induced illness, or requires resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours. See our guide to confined spaces.
Concussion without loss of consciousness, dislocations, lacerations needing stitches and hospital attendance on its own are not specified injuries; they become reportable only through the seven day rule.
Over seven day injuries
Regulation 4(2) applies where a person at work is “incapacitated for routine work for more than seven consecutive days (excluding the day of the accident)” because of a work related accident. HSE calls these “over-7-day” injuries. The counting rules are precise:
- Start counting the day after the accident and count every calendar day, including weekends, rest days and days the person would not normally have worked.
- “Incapacitated for routine work” means the person cannot do the full range of their normal duties. Someone in on light duties is still incapacitated.
- The injury becomes reportable on the eighth day, and the report must be received within 15 days of the accident, not of the eighth day. An injury that looks minor on the day still needs a diary check a week later.
Over three day injuries
Where a worker is incapacitated for more than three consecutive days but not more than seven, nothing is reported, but regulation 12 requires the accident to be recorded. An accident book entry holding the required particulars is sufficient.
Injuries to people who are not at work
Regulation 5 covers members of the public, visitors, customers, pupils, patients, residents and anyone else not at work. Their injury is reportable if it arose from a work related accident and the person is taken from the scene to a hospital for treatment of that injury.
HSE gives dressings, stitches, a plaster cast and surgery as examples of treatment. A precautionary examination or X ray that finds nothing is not treatment, and a person who makes their own way to hospital later is not “taken from the scene”. A person not at work who suffers a specified injury on hospital premises is reportable regardless.
Occupational diseases
Regulation 8 covers six listed conditions and regulation 9 adds cancers and diseases caused by biological agents, making eight categories. Two things must line up: a doctor’s written diagnosis, and a job that matches the exposure.
| Disease | Reportable when the work involves |
|---|---|
| Carpal tunnel syndrome | Regular use of percussive or vibrating hand held power tools. Keyboard related cases are not reportable. |
| Cramp of the hand or forearm | Prolonged periods of repetitive movement of the fingers, hand or arm, where the cramp is chronic. |
| Occupational dermatitis | Significant or regular exposure to a chemical or biological skin irritant or sensitiser, such as epoxy resins, latex, cement or soaps. See our COSHH basics guide. |
| Hand arm vibration syndrome | Regular use of percussive or vibrating tools, or holding materials against them. See our guide to noise and vibration at work. |
| Occupational asthma | Significant or regular exposure to a known respiratory sensitiser. Pre existing asthma not made worse by work is not reportable. |
| Tendonitis or tenosynovitis of the hand or forearm | Physically demanding work with frequent, repetitive movements. |
| Occupational cancer | An established causal link between the type of cancer and a hazard the person was exposed to at work. |
| Disease attributed to a biological agent | Occupational exposure is the likely cause, whether from an identifiable incident such as a needlestick injury or an unidentified exposure. |
Diseases are reported without delay once the responsible person receives the diagnosis. There is no numbered deadline, because the duty starts when you know.
Dangerous occurrences (Schedule 2)
Regulation 7 makes the events in Schedule 2 reportable whether or not anyone was hurt, because they have a high potential to cause death or serious injury. Schedule 2 has 87 paragraphs in five parts: general (1 to 27), mines (28 to 46), quarries (47 to 53), relevant transport systems (54 to 74) and offshore workplaces (75 to 87). The general part applies to every workplace; these are the entries most employers might meet.
| Schedule 2 paragraph | What is reportable | Typical example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lifting equipment | Collapse, overturning or failure of any load bearing part of lifting equipment | A telehandler overturns; a crane hook block fails |
| 2. Pressure systems | Failure of a closed vessel or associated pipework with the potential to cause death | An air receiver ruptures |
| 3. Overhead electric lines | Unintentional contact with, or close proximity discharge from, an uninsulated overhead line of more than 200 volts | A tipper body raised under a power line |
| 4. Electrical incidents | A short circuit or overload causing fire or explosion that puts the equipment out of use for more than 24 hours | A distribution board fire that shuts a workshop for two days |
| 12. Breathing apparatus | Malfunction causing a significant risk of injury in use or during testing before use | A supplied air set fails during a confined space entry |
| 18. Scaffolding | Complete or partial collapse of a scaffold more than 5 metres high, or of a suspended scaffold’s suspension arrangements causing the platform to fall | A tube and fitting scaffold blown over. See our working at height guide |
| 23 and 24. Structural collapse | Unintentional collapse of a building or structure involving a fall of more than 5 tonnes of material, or of falsework | A wall collapses during demolition; formwork fails during a pour |
| 25. Explosion or fire | An explosion or fire that stops normal work at the premises for more than 24 hours | A dust explosion in a mill |
| 26. Flammable liquids and gases | Sudden uncontrolled release that would cause a major fire or explosion if ignited | A ruptured LPG line |
| 27. Hazardous substance escapes | Unintentional release of any substance that could cause injury other than through fire or explosion | A chlorine cylinder leak |
The remaining general paragraphs cover explosives, Hazard Group 3 and 4 biological agents, radiation generators and sources, diving operations, train collisions, wells and pipelines. Note the thresholds: a low scaffold that topples is not reportable under paragraph 18, and a fire put out in minutes with a morning’s disruption is not reportable under paragraph 25, although both should be investigated. Our guide to fire risk assessment covers the prevention side.
Gas incidents
Regulation 11 holds two duties outside the employer’s normal reporting. Distributors, fillers, importers and suppliers of flammable gas must report any incident involving that gas where someone died, lost consciousness or was taken to hospital for treatment. Gas Safe registered engineers must report an appliance or fitting they consider dangerous because it could result in accidental gas leakage, incomplete combustion or inadequate removal of combustion products. Employers are not the responsible person for either, but should act on any notice an engineer gives them.
Exemptions: what is not reportable
Regulation 14 sets out where the duties in regulations 4 to 10 do not apply, and regulation 15 removes reports that would duplicate another statutory scheme.
- Medical and dental treatment. Injury or death arising from an operation, examination or other treatment carried out by or under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner or dentist. A patient who falls out of bed on a ward is different: that is a non worker injured by the condition of the premises.
- Road traffic accidents. Injury or death from a vehicle moving on a public road, unless the person was struck by a train, exposed to a substance the vehicle was carrying, engaged in loading or unloading the vehicle, or working on or alongside the road (construction, demolition, alteration, repair or maintenance of the road, its boundaries, utilities under it or adjacent structures). See our guide to workplace transport safety for what is reportable on your own site.
- Armed forces. Accidents to members of the armed forces on duty.
- Parallel regimes. Incidents already reportable under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965, merchant shipping legislation, the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017, civil aviation regulations or the Electricity Safety, Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002.
- Self employed on their own premises (deaths) and suicide, as noted above.
Work related stress, verbal abuse without physical injury and gradual onset back pain are not reportable because they do not fit the definitions. Record them internally anyway.
How and when to report
Schedule 1 sets the procedure. For deaths, specified injuries and dangerous occurrences the responsible person must notify the enforcing authority “by the quickest practicable means without delay” and send a report “within 10 days”. For over seven day injuries the report is due “as soon as practicable and in any event within 15 days of the accident”.
| Event | Regulation | Notify | Report received by | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Death of any person | 6 | Without delay (telephone allowed) | 10 days after the incident | Report of an injury |
| Specified injury to a worker | 4(1) | Without delay (telephone allowed) | 10 days after the incident | Report of an injury |
| Over seven day injury to a worker | 4(2) | Not required | 15 days after the accident | Report of an injury |
| Non worker taken to hospital | 5 | Without delay | 10 days after the incident | Report of an injury |
| Dangerous occurrence | 7 | Without delay | 10 days after the incident | Report of a dangerous occurrence |
| Occupational disease, cancer or biological agent disease | 8 and 9 | Not applicable | Without delay on receiving the diagnosis | Report of a case of disease |
| Flammable gas incident | 11(1) | Without delay | 14 days after the incident | Report of a flammable gas incident |
| Dangerous gas fitting | 11(2) | Not applicable | Within 14 days | Report of a dangerous gas fitting |
| Death within one year of a reportable injury | 6(3) | Without delay | Notification only | Telephone or injury form |
All reports go through the five online forms on the HSE website, whichever enforcing authority is responsible. After submitting you are offered a PDF copy; HSE no longer emails one, so download it there and then. The Incident Contact Centre on 0345 300 9923 takes fatal accidents and specified injuries to workers only, during office hours, and is also the route for amending those notifications. Everything else is submitted online, including out of hours.
For the practical steps in the first hour, what to preserve and how to complete the form well, see the complete guide to reporting safety incidents.
Record keeping
Regulation 12 requires the responsible person to keep a record of every reportable death, injury and dangerous occurrence (regulations 4 to 7), every reportable diagnosis (regulations 8 to 10), and every work related accident that incapacitates a worker for routine work for more than three consecutive days, excluding the day of the accident, even though those are not reported.
Each record must be kept “for at least three years from the date on which it was made”, at the workplace or the responsible person’s usual place of business, and extracts must be supplied to the enforcing authority on request. An accident book kept under the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979 satisfies regulation 12 provided the entries hold the particulars in Schedule 1 Part 2 and are kept for three years. Our incidents guide covers the accident book in detail.
Enforcing authorities: HSE, local authority or ORR
The “relevant enforcing authority” depends on the premises, under the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1998. Every online form goes into the same HSE system and is passed to the right body, but it helps to know who may follow up.
| Enforcing authority | Typical premises and activities |
|---|---|
| Health and Safety Executive (HSE) | Factories, farms, building sites, mines, schools and colleges, fairgrounds, gas, electricity and water systems, hospitals and nursing homes, central and local government premises, offshore installations |
| Local authority (environmental health) | Offices (except government offices), shops, hotels, restaurants, leisure premises, nurseries and playgroups, pubs and clubs, privately owned museums, places of worship, sheltered accommodation and care homes |
| Office of Rail and Road (ORR) | Railways, tramways and other guided transport systems, including the dangerous occurrences in Schedule 2 paragraphs 54 to 74 |
| Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) | Licensed nuclear sites |
Northern Ireland has its own RIDDOR regulations and incidents there are reported to HSENI, not through the GB system.
Is it reportable? A decision table
Work down the table and stop at the first row that fits. If nothing fits, record the event internally and do not report it.
| Step | Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Was it a work related accident, a diagnosed disease or a Schedule 2 event, with no exemption applying? | Go to 2 | Not reportable. Record internally |
| 2 | Did anyone die (other than by suicide), or is it a Schedule 2 dangerous occurrence? | Notify without delay, form within 10 days | Go to 3 |
| 3 | Was the injured person at work? | Go to 4 | Go to 6 |
| 4 | Is the injury on the specified injuries list and confirmed by a doctor? | Notify without delay, form within 10 days | Go to 5 |
| 5 | Unable to do normal duties for more than 7 consecutive days after the day of the accident? | Report within 15 days of the accident | More than 3 days: record only. Otherwise not reportable |
| 6 | Was the non worker taken from the scene to hospital and treated there, not just examined? | Report within 10 days | Not reportable. Record internally |
| 7 | Has a doctor diagnosed one of the eight disease categories in someone whose work involves the matching exposure? | Report without delay on receiving the diagnosis | Not reportable |
The table covers general workplaces. Mines, quarries, offshore installations, pipelines and railways have additional categories and different responsible persons.
Case study: the report that arrived two months late
In a case publicised by HSE in June 2026, a worker suffered life changing injuries when the side wall of an excavation about three metres deep collapsed on him after rain. The work had not been properly planned, managed or monitored, and the incident was not reported to HSE until around two months later. Alongside the substantive safety failure, the company director was charged with failing to report under RIDDOR, and received a six month prison sentence suspended for two years plus costs. The inspector’s comment was that the decision not to report meant other workers continued to be put at risk every day, and that it was luck rather than management that nobody else was seriously hurt.
The lessons: a specified injury or dangerous occurrence is reportable on the day, not after the casualty’s recovery or the internal investigation; late reporting is a separate offence that is easy to prove from two dates; and regulators read a missing report as evidence of attitude. Read the HSE press release for the full account.
Common mistakes
- Treating hospital attendance as the test for workers. For a person at work, reportability rests on the specified injuries list or the seven day rule. The hospital test applies to non workers.
- Still using the over three day threshold. It changed in April 2012. Over three day injuries are recorded, not reported.
- Counting only working days. The seven days are consecutive calendar days, weekends included, starting the day after the accident.
- Missing the 15 day deadline because nobody tracked the absence. Give someone the job of checking on every injured worker at day seven.
- Reporting the wrong person’s accident. Contractors report their own employees. You report self employed people and members of the public hurt on premises you control.
- Forgetting dangerous occurrences because nobody was hurt. A scaffold over 5 metres that collapses into an empty yard is reportable.
- Misreading the road traffic exemption. A delivery driver hit by a car while unloading on the public road is reportable. The same driver in a collision between sites is not.
Frequently asked questions
Is a dislocated shoulder a specified injury?
No. Dislocations are not on the 2013 specified injuries list, one of the differences from the old “major injuries” list under RIDDOR 1995. A dislocation becomes reportable only if the worker is unable to do their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days, in which case it is reported within 15 days of the accident.
An agency worker was injured on our site. Who reports?
The responsible person is the injured person’s employer. For agency workers this is normally the business that controls their day to day work. Agree the arrangement in writing with the agency so both sides know who submits the form and who keeps the record.
A customer slipped in our shop, went to hospital in a taxi and had stitches. Reportable?
Probably yes. The person was not at work, the injury arose from the condition of the premises, they went from the scene to hospital and stitches are treatment. Report within 10 days; as a shop is local authority enforced, environmental health will receive it.
A worker was assaulted by a member of the public and broke a cheekbone. Is that RIDDOR?
Yes. An accident includes non consensual physical violence to a worker, and a facial fracture is a specified injury. Notify without delay and submit the injury form within 10 days. Threats and verbal abuse with no physical injury are not reportable but should be recorded.
We had a small fire in a plant room, put out in minutes, and lost half a day. Dangerous occurrence?
Not under paragraph 25, which requires normal work to stop for more than 24 hours. Check paragraph 4 as well: if the fire came from an electrical short circuit or overload and the equipment is out of use for more than 24 hours, that is reportable even if work carried on.
What if we discover an unreported incident from months ago?
Report it now and say in the form that it is late and why. A late report is a breach, but a deliberate decision not to report is far more serious, and inspectors treat honesty about a missed deadline differently from concealment. Then fix whatever let it slip: training, absence tracking or who holds the duty.
Further resources
- HSE: RIDDOR home page and online forms
- HSE: Types of reportable incidents
- HSE: Specified injuries to workers
- HSE: Reportable occupational diseases
- HSE: Dangerous occurrences
- HSE: Exemptions
- HSE: How to make a RIDDOR report
- HSE: INDG453 Reporting accidents and incidents at work
- legislation.gov.uk: RIDDOR 2013 (SI 2013/1471)
- UK-Safety.News: A Complete Guide to Reporting Safety Incidents in the UK
- UK-Safety.News: Useful Documents
This guide is general information for Great Britain and is not legal advice. Northern Ireland has its own RIDDOR regulations, administered by HSENI. Check the current HSE guidance before acting on a specific case.
About the author: Jade Anderson specialises in turning regulations into practical steps for supervisors and safety leads.