UK HSE: RIDDOR Reporting Requirements Explained
If you manage health and safety at a site in Great Britain, RIDDOR is the legal obligation most likely to catch you out — not because the rules are complex, but because the duty to report sits in the middle of an emergency, when your attention is on the injured person and not on a reporting deadline. Miss the wrong category or the wrong window and you have a compliance gap that an HSE inspector will find.
This article explains what RIDDOR requires, who has to report, which incidents are in scope, and the deadlines that actually apply. The goal is to give you a working reference you can act on, not a restatement of the regulations.
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What RIDDOR Is and Who It Applies To
RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. It is the UK law that places a legal duty on certain people to report specified workplace incidents to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or, for some premises, the relevant local authority.
The duty does not fall on the injured person. It falls on the "responsible person," which RIDDOR defines according to the situation:
| Situation | Responsible person |
|---|---|
| An employee is injured | The employer |
| A self-employed person is injured on someone else's premises | The person in control of the premises |
| A self-employed person is injured on their own premises | The self-employed person |
| A member of the public or a non-worker is injured | The person in control of the premises where the incident happened |
| A dangerous occurrence happens | The person in control of the premises |
RIDDOR applies across Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) to virtually all work activities. Northern Ireland has its own equivalent regulations enforced by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI). The point that catches employers most often: the obligation is triggered by the work connection, not by who the injured person is. An incident involving a visitor or a contractor can be just as reportable as one involving your own staff.
RIDDOR exists so that the HSE and local authorities can identify where and how serious workplace risks are occurring, target their enforcement and guidance, and build the national injury statistics that shape policy. As of the 2024/25 reporting year, 59,219 injuries to employees were reported under RIDDOR, against an estimated 680,000 non-fatal injuries captured by the wider Labour Force Survey — a gap that reflects the fact that only the more serious injuries meet the reporting threshold (HSE, Health and Safety Statistics, published July 2025).
What Incidents Are RIDDOR Reportable
A RIDDOR-reportable incident is a work-related event that falls into one of six defined categories. "Work-related" is the threshold test: the incident must arise out of or in connection with work. A slip caused by a wet floor in a workplace is reportable; a worker's pre-existing medical condition that happens to manifest at work is not.
The six reportable categories are:
- Deaths. Any death resulting from a work-related accident must be reported, with the single exception of suicides.
- Specified injuries to workers. A defined list of serious injuries (covered in the next section).
- Over-seven-day injuries to workers. Injuries that keep a worker away from work or unable to perform their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days.
- Injuries to non-workers. Where a member of the public or other non-worker is injured and taken directly from the scene to hospital for treatment.
- Occupational diseases. A defined list of diagnosed conditions where work is a likely cause — including occupational dermatitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, occupational asthma, hand-arm vibration syndrome, and certain occupational cancers.
- Dangerous occurrences. "Near-miss" events from a specified list in Schedule 2 of the regulations — such as the collapse of scaffolding, the failure of a lifting device, an unintended explosion, or the accidental release of a biological agent likely to cause severe human illness.
A practical distinction worth holding onto: the over-seven-day rule counts consecutive days you would otherwise have expected the person to work, and the count starts the day after the accident — the day of the accident itself does not count. Weekends and rest days are included in the seven-day count even if the person was not scheduled to work them.
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Specified Injuries Under RIDDOR
A specified injury is one of the most serious injury types named explicitly in RIDDOR, which carry the duty to notify the HSE without delay. They sit in a separate, more urgent category than over-seven-day injuries.
The specified injuries to workers are:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Fractures | Any bone fracture diagnosed by a doctor, other than to fingers, thumbs, or toes |
| Amputations | Loss of any limb, hand, foot, finger, or toe |
| Sight loss | Permanent loss of sight or reduction in sight in one or both eyes |
| Crush injuries | Crushing of the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs |
| Burns | Serious burns covering more than 10% of the body, or damaging the eyes, respiratory system, or other vital organs |
| Scalpings | Any scalping requiring hospital treatment |
| Asphyxia | Loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia |
| Confined-space harm | Any injury from working in an enclosed space leading to hypothermia, heat-induced illness, or loss of consciousness, or requiring resuscitation or 24-hour hospital admission |
If an injury appears on this list, treat it as notify-immediately and confirm the formal report within the specified injury window — do not wait to see whether the worker is absent for seven days. A fractured wrist is reportable as a specified injury on the day it is diagnosed, regardless of subsequent absence.
RIDDOR Reporting Deadlines and How to Report
RIDDOR sets two distinct deadline tracks, and confusing them is one of the most common compliance errors. The category of the incident determines which deadline applies.
| Incident type | Notification duty | Formal report deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Death | Notify HSE without delay | Submit report within 10 days of the incident |
| Specified injury | Notify HSE without delay | Submit report within 10 days of the incident |
| Dangerous occurrence | Notify HSE without delay | Submit report within 10 days of the incident |
| Non-worker injury (taken to hospital) | Notify HSE without delay | Submit report within 10 days of the incident |
| Occupational disease | — | Report as soon as the responsible person receives a written diagnosis |
| Over-seven-day injury | — | Submit report within 15 days of the accident |
Two deadline traps deserve emphasis:
The over-seven-day deadline runs from the accident, not from the seventh day. You have 15 days from the date of the accident — not 15 days from the moment the seven-day threshold is crossed. An accident on the 1st that becomes reportable on the 9th still has to be reported by the 16th.
"Without delay" means before the formal report. For deaths, specified injuries, dangerous occurrences, and non-worker hospitalisations, you must notify the HSE promptly — typically by phone for fatal and major incidents — and then complete the formal online report within 10 days.
Most reports are submitted through the HSE's online reporting system at the RIDDOR section of the HSE website, which routes the appropriate form for each incident type. Fatal and specified-injury incidents can also be reported by telephone to the HSE Incident Contact Centre. Whatever the channel, you must keep a record of any reportable incident for at least three years, including the date, method of reporting, the people involved, and the circumstances.
A note many employers overlook: a record of the incident is required even when you have submitted the report. The three-year record obligation is separate from the report itself and is frequently checked during an inspection.
What RIDDOR Does Not Require — and Where Employers Go Wrong
RIDDOR is a narrow reporting duty, and treating it as a catch-all for every workplace incident creates both noise and risk. Understanding the boundaries is as important as understanding the triggers.
RIDDOR does not require you to report:
- Injuries that keep a worker off for seven days or fewer (though you must still record them in your accident book if you employ ten or more people, under separate Social Security legislation).
- Incidents that are not work-related — for example, a worker's heart attack with no work cause, or a slip caused entirely by the individual's own footwear unrelated to the work environment.
- Road traffic accidents on public roads, with limited exceptions involving the loading or unloading of a vehicle, work alongside the road, or the escape of a substance being transported.
- Acts of physical violence between members of the public on your premises that are not connected to the work activity.
The most common employer failures are predictable:
- Misclassifying the injury and missing the tighter deadline — for example, treating a diagnosed fracture as an ordinary injury and only reporting it once the worker has been off for seven days.
- Assuming someone else reported it — particularly on multi-employer sites, where the "responsible person" is the one in control of the premises or the relevant employer, and assumptions about who filed leave a gap.
- Failing to keep the three-year record even after a report was correctly submitted.
- Not reporting non-worker injuries because the injured person was a visitor or member of the public rather than an employee.
Getting these boundaries right matters because the HSE treats RIDDOR failures seriously. Failing to report is a criminal offence, and a reporting gap discovered during the investigation of a serious incident tends to compound the original enforcement exposure. For the underlying recordkeeping discipline that supports accurate reporting, the same principles apply across jurisdictions — see OSHA Recordkeeping: Forms 300, 300A, and 301 Explained for the US equivalent and how a structured incident process serves both regimes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Who is responsible for reporting under RIDDOR?
The "responsible person" — not the injured individual. For an injured employee, that is the employer. For a self-employed person or a member of the public injured on premises, it is the person in control of those premises. On multi-employer sites, identify the responsible person before an incident happens, because uncertainty in the moment is how reports get missed.
Q. What is the deadline for reporting an over-seven-day injury?
Within 15 days of the accident. The clock starts on the date of the accident, not the date the seven-day absence threshold is crossed. The seven-day count itself begins the day after the accident and includes weekends and rest days.
Q. Do I have to report an injury to a member of the public?
Yes, if the work-related incident results in the non-worker being taken directly from the scene to a hospital for treatment of the injury. This is reportable as a notify-without-delay incident with a 10-day formal report deadline, the same track as deaths and specified injuries.
Q. What is the difference between a specified injury and an over-seven-day injury?
A specified injury is one of a defined list of serious injuries — fractures (other than to fingers, thumbs, or toes), amputations, serious burns, sight loss, and others — and must be notified without delay, then formally reported within 10 days. An over-seven-day injury is any injury keeping a worker off normal duties for more than seven consecutive days and is reportable within 15 days of the accident. A specified injury is reportable on diagnosis regardless of absence length.
Q. How long do I need to keep records of reportable incidents?
At least three years from the date the record was made. The record must include the date and method of reporting, the date, time, and place of the event, personal details of those involved, and a brief description of the circumstances. This record duty is separate from — and additional to — submitting the report itself.
Key Takeaways
- RIDDOR places the reporting duty on the "responsible person" (usually the employer or the person in control of the premises), not the injured individual — and the work connection, not who was hurt, determines whether an incident is in scope.
- Six categories are reportable: deaths, specified injuries, over-seven-day injuries, hospitalised non-worker injuries, occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences from the Schedule 2 list.
- Two deadline tracks apply: notify without delay and report within 10 days for deaths, specified injuries, dangerous occurrences, and non-worker hospitalisations; report within 15 days of the accident for over-seven-day injuries.
- The over-seven-day deadline runs from the date of the accident, not from the day the threshold is crossed — and the seven-day count includes weekends and rest days.
- A record of any reportable incident must be kept for at least three years, separately from the report. Misclassification, "someone else reported it" assumptions, and missing records are the most common — and most avoidable — failures.
Related Resources
| Resource | Description | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| OSHA Recordkeeping: Forms 300, 300A, and 301 Explained | The US recordkeeping equivalent — how structured incident data supports compliance across jurisdictions | EHS managers operating in both UK and US regulatory environments |
| Corrective Action Management: Stop Losing Track of Your CAPA Items | Turning reportable incidents into verified, closed-loop corrective actions | Teams connecting RIDDOR reports to ISO 45001 corrective action duties |
| Safety Management Trends 2026: AI, IoT, and Regulatory Changes | How digital reporting tools and analytics are reshaping compliance workflows | Safety leaders modernising incident reporting infrastructure |
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