RIDDOR is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. It requires UK employers and self-employed people to report certain workplace injuries, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Fatal injuries and specified injuries to workers must be reported without delay. Injuries causing more than 7 days' absence must be reported within 15 days. Most reports are made online at the HSE's RIDDOR reporting portal. Failing to report when required is a criminal offence and can result in prosecution. The duty falls on the "responsible person" — usually the employer.
RIDDOR is the legal obligation most UK employers have heard of but few understand in detail. It catches people out — not because the principle is complicated, but because the categories of what to report (and when) need to be applied quickly under pressure, often after an incident has already disrupted normal work.
This guide explains what RIDDOR requires, who has to report, what triggers a report, and the deadlines that actually matter. It's written for safety officers, line managers, HR teams and small business owners who need a clear answer to "do I have to report this?"
RIDDOR is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. It's a UK statutory instrument that places legal duties on employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises to report specific categories of incident to the HSE.
The regulations apply across England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has equivalent legislation administered by HSENI. Reports for offshore workplaces, mines, quarries and railways have specific provisions — but the core principles are the same.
The duty falls on the "responsible person." This is normally:
This means RIDDOR isn't just an employer obligation — landlords, facilities managers, premises owners and self-employed contractors all have potential reporting duties depending on the circumstances.
RIDDOR has five main categories of reportable incident:
Reported without delay. This includes:
Reported within 15 days of the incident. This catches employers out most often. The clock starts on the day after the incident — not the day it happened. The 7 days include any rest days but exclude the day of the incident itself.
You must also keep a record of injuries causing more than 3 days' absence in your accident book or equivalent record, even though they don't need to be reported externally.
Reported without delay if a member of the public is injured at a work-related incident and is taken from the scene to hospital for treatment. Includes customers, visitors, contractors not directly employed by you, and bystanders.
Reported as soon as the doctor's diagnosis confirms. Reportable diseases include carpal tunnel syndrome (where work involves regular vibration), severe cramp of the hand or forearm (where work involves prolonged repetitive movement), occupational dermatitis, hand-arm vibration syndrome, occupational asthma, tendonitis or tenosynovitis (in specific work roles), occupational cancer, and any disease attributed to occupational exposure to a biological agent.
Reported without delay. These are specified "near misses" with high potential for serious harm — collapse of a lifting device, structural collapse of scaffolding, electrical incidents causing fire or explosion, accidental release of hazardous substances above specified thresholds, and similar high-consequence events. The full list is in Schedule 2 of the regulations.
| Type of incident | Reporting deadline |
|---|---|
| Death at work | Without delay (typically by phone) |
| Specified injury (fracture, amputation, etc.) | Without delay |
| Member of public injury requiring hospital treatment | Without delay |
| Dangerous occurrence | Without delay |
| Worker injury causing 7+ days' absence | Within 15 days of incident |
| Reportable occupational disease | Without delay after diagnosis |
"Without delay" doesn't mean instantly — but it does mean prompt, typically the same working day or next working day. For deaths, the HSE expects to be contacted by phone immediately.
Most RIDDOR reports are made online via the HSE's reporting portal. There are dedicated forms for each category — injury, dangerous occurrence, occupational disease, gas-related incident, and so on.
The standard process:
For fatal incidents, phone HSE on 0345 300 9923 (Monday to Friday, 8.30am–5pm) immediately, and follow up with a written report afterwards.
Even where a report doesn't have to be sent to HSE, RIDDOR requires you to keep internal records of:
Records must be kept for at least 3 years from the date of the entry. The HSE can ask to see them during inspections, after incidents, or when investigating.
Wrong. RIDDOR applies to incidents arising out of or in connection with work. Slips and trips in workplace car parks, on access routes, or in shared areas where work activity takes place are typically reportable if they meet the injury threshold.
The over-7-day rule counts any day they couldn't work normally — not just absences from your premises. If someone is injured Monday, sent home, and then unable to do their normal duties for 8+ days afterwards (even if working light duties), it's reportable.
Some near-misses are reportable as dangerous occurrences. The collapse of scaffolding, an uncontrolled release of biological agent, or the failure of a lifting machine — even with no injuries — can trigger a RIDDOR report.
Often both you and the contractor have duties. The contractor's employer reports for the contractor. If the incident happened on your premises, you may also need to report under your premises duty. Don't assume someone else has it covered.
Fault doesn't affect reporting duty. RIDDOR is about reporting incidents, not allocating blame. Workplace injuries meeting the criteria are reportable regardless of cause.
Self-employed people have RIDDOR duties too — they must report injuries to themselves arising from their work. The over-7-day rule still applies. Self-employed reports are made via the same online portal.
If you're working at a client's premises and an incident occurs, you may have one duty as a self-employed person (to report your own injury) and the client may have a separate duty as the controller of the premises. Both can apply simultaneously.
Most reports don't trigger an immediate HSE response. The HSE uses RIDDOR data to:
Serious incidents — fatalities, major injuries, dangerous occurrences with high public concern — are typically followed up by HSE inspectors. For less severe reportable injuries, you may not hear back at all.
Submitting a RIDDOR report doesn't automatically mean enforcement action. But failing to report when required can itself be a separate offence, prosecutable in its own right.
Failure to report under RIDDOR is a criminal offence. Penalties on conviction include unlimited fines and, in serious cases, imprisonment for up to two years. In practice, prosecutions for RIDDOR failures usually accompany prosecution for the underlying safety failure — but the reporting offence is independent.
More common in practice: the HSE issues an enforcement notice or follows up with formal questioning when it discovers an unreported incident through other means (insurance claims, employee complaints, hospital reports). At that point your reporting failure becomes part of any enforcement file.
Practical responsibility for RIDDOR usually sits with:
For smaller businesses without a dedicated safety officer, the duty typically falls on the owner or senior manager. NEBOSH and IOSH-trained managers are better-equipped to make the report-or-not call confidently.
Yes. If a homeworker is injured doing work for you and meets the reporting threshold, RIDDOR applies. The work activity matters more than the location — what counts is whether the injury arose out of or in connection with their work.
Reportable Covid-19 cases under RIDDOR are now narrowly defined and largely apply to specific occupational exposures (for example healthcare workers exposed during clinical work). Most workplace Covid cases since the end of the public health emergency are not RIDDOR-reportable. Refer to current HSE guidance for the live position.
The accident book is your internal record of all workplace injuries and incidents — required by separate legislation. RIDDOR is the external reporting duty for specific categories of more serious incident. Many incidents go in the accident book without triggering a RIDDOR report.
Yes — late reporting is better than no reporting. The HSE can take a more lenient view of late reporting if you can show genuine confusion about whether the incident was reportable. Deliberately concealing a reportable incident is much more serious.
The subcontractor's employer reports for the subcontractor. If you control the premises where the incident occurred, you may also have a duty to report under your premises duty — particularly for serious incidents. Both reports can be required for the same incident.
At notifications.hse.gov.uk/riddorforms. Choose the form that matches the incident type — injury, dangerous occurrence, occupational disease, gas incident, or flammable gas incident.
RIDDOR doesn't require you to notify the injured person of the report itself, but you should tell them the incident is being recorded internally. From a relationship standpoint, telling employees you've made a RIDDOR report (and explaining why) is normally good practice.
If you're unsure whether to report a specific incident, the safer position is usually to report. Late or unnecessary reports cause far less trouble than missing a genuine reporting duty.
For training that builds RIDDOR understanding into wider workplace safety competence, the IOSH Managing Safely course is the standard for line managers and supervisors. The NEBOSH National General Certificate is the standard for safety officers. Both cover incident reporting in depth.
KeyOstas is a NEBOSH Gold Learning Partner with 41 years of experience. We deliver health and safety training at venues in Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Manchester, virtually anywhere in the UK, and on-site for groups of six or more. Call us on +44 (0) 3300 569534 for tailored advice on RIDDOR-specific training for your team.
