How Do I Report An Incident Under RIDDOR?

RIDDOR legislation covers a wide range of accidents, illnesses and incidents.

Here’s a list of the types of reportable incidents that might occur in your workplace.

Deaths And Injuries

• Death. Any death of a staff member or non-worker, unless the incident is a suicide, must be reported if it was caused by a work-related accident or incident.
• Specified injury. This category covers things like serious burns, fractures to anything other than toes and fingers, amputations and loss of consciousness. If an injury causes a staff member to miss work for more than 7 days, this is considered a major injury and a reportable incident. (If the staff member misses over 3 days, the incident is recordable but not yet reportable).
• Non-fatal accidents to non-workers, such as members of the public.

Occupational Diseases

Certain occupational diseases are likely to have been caused by work or made worse by it. These should be reported by employers and self-employed people and include:

• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Occupational dermatitis
• Any occupational cancer
• Occupational asthma

Dangerous Occurrences

This term refers to serious near-miss events that could cause injury or disease to anyone in the workplace. There are a whopping 27 categories of dangerous occurrences, including:

• The failure of load-bearing parts of lifting equipment
• The accidental release of a substance that could cause injury
• Any explosion or fire caused by an electrical short circuit or overload 
• The release or escape of a biological agent likely to cause severe human infection or illness.

Incidents Involving Gasses

Any business involved in distributing, importing, supplying or filling vessels of flammable gas is subject to particular RIDDOR regulations. They must report an incident if someone has died, lost consciousness or been taken to hospital due to an incident involving the gas using the Report of a Flammable Gas Incident online form.