Road Legal

Workplace accidents and RIDDOR

20 December 2006

What is RIDDOR?

RIDDOR is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. Under these regulations, employers and other responsible persons who have control over employees and work premises are required to notify and report to the appropriate enforcing authority:

Accidents causing major injuries (or non-major injuries where the injured party is incapacitated for more than three days), including fatalities
Occupational diseases
Dangerous occurrences, even where no injury results

The duty to report applies not only in the case of incidents involving employees, but also to incidents involving non-employees such as contractors, mobile workers, customers or other members of the public, killed or injured by work activities (RIDDOR Regulation 3(1)).

What are "injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences"?

The regulations themselves contain lists and details of the reportable major injuries, reportable dangerous occurrences and reportable diseases.

How to report

Reports regarding injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences should be made to your appropriate enforcing authority. Alternatively, and increasingly the norm, they can be made by telephone or electronically to the National Incident Contact Centre (NICC).

Who is responsible for reporting?

The regulations set out specific rules in respect of who is responsible for reporting. In most cases the employer will be responsible for reporting injury-causing accidents, death or diseases. Failing that the person having control of the work premises or activity will be the responsible person. However, in circumstances involving the carriage of dangerous goods, the vehicle operator will normally be responsible for reporting.

In situations where the responsible person is difficult to identify because of the shared control of a site or operations, arrangements should be made to determine who will deal with RIDDOR reporting - if in doubt, report anyway!

The self-employed

If you are working in someone else's premises and suffer either a major injury or an injury which means that you cannot work for more than three days, that person will be responsible for reporting your injury. If you are working on your own premises and you or a member of the public is injured, or there is a dangerous occurrence, or you have a notifiable disease, you need to report it.

Road traffic accidents

There are special provisions in relation to road accident death and injuries. They are only notifiable and reportable if the death or major injury was caused by or connected with:

exposure to any substance conveyed by the road
loading or unloading vehicles
construction, demolition, alteration or maintenance activities in public roads
an accident involving a train

In addition, certain dangerous occurrences on public highways and private roads are covered. Reference should be made to the regulations for the precise coverage and definitions.

When should an accident be notified/reported?

If there is a reportable accident involving your organisation and it causes major injury or fatality to an employee, or any other person is injured or killed on the premises or by work under your control, then the appropriate authority or the NICC must be notified immediately. A formal report on the RIDDOR-approved form or a report via the NICC (if not already done) must then follow as soon as practicable (in respect of employees only) and no later than 10 days from the accident.

The same requirements also apply to dangerous occurrences.

Reportable work-related diseases should be reported to the appropriate authority by sending a completed disease report without delay.

Where an employee is incapacitated for more than three days due to a non-major injury (excluding the day of the accident) then it is reportable via a formal report on the RIDDOR-approved form or a report via the NICC as soon as practicable (in respect of employees only) and no later than 10 days from the date of the accident. Immediate notification as described above is not necessary. Not surprisingly, the vast amount of RIDDOR reports arise out of the three-day absence rule. It is also the one that catches most employers out!

Keeping records

Records of injury-causing accidents, dangerous occurrences and specified diseases must be kept by responsible persons for at least three years (RIDDOR Regulation 7(3)).

Offences

Failure to comply with the provisions of RIDDOR is a criminal offence. The maximum penalty in the magistrates' court is £5,000. Conviction in the crown court, in respect of more serious offences, carries an unlimited fine.