The Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations (RIDDOR)

The Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations are commonly known as the RIDDOR Regulations and all organisations have a duty to comply with them within their business. These regulations came into force on 1st April 1996 and help the enforcing authorities identify where and how risks arise and provide necessary information to enable them to undertake investigations when serious accidents occur.

Under the regulations, certain accidents and incidents that arise out of or in connection with your work activities are required to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive or the Local Authority. The regulations apply to all organisations that are based in Great Britain, however, Northern Ireland have their own separate procedures.

Under the RIDDOR Regulations there are different classes of accidents that are required to be reported to the HSE for example, if there is a fatality that has been caused by a work activity, then it is required to be reported to the enforcing authority immediately. This will often be done by the police when they arrive on the scene, however it is still the responsibility of the employer or the person in control of the premises to ensure that this action has been completed. Under these circumstances it will be imperative to telephone the enforcing authority so that they can visit the scene as early as possible to undertake their investigations.

On occasions, an injury may caused the member of staff to be off work for more than three working days, or prevent them from completing their normal work duties. If this situation arises then you must notify the enforcing authority of the incident. When calculating the three consecutive days, the day of the accident is not counted, however, the period after is and this includes weekends. For example, if an employee normally works Monday to Friday and is injured on Thursday and does not return back to work due to the injury until the following Tuesday, then the incident will be required to be reported. This is because he/she will have been off work for 4 days i.e. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Hopefully, the need to report accidents or incidents under these regulations will seldom occur, however, if you have an accident within your organisation, Citation plc’s team of advisers are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to provide as much support as is necessary. For less serious accidents that lead to an employee being off work for three days, advice can be provided by our team of professional advisers on the helpline, however for more serious accidents your dedicated health and safety consultant will be at the accident scene within a matter of hours.

We currently provide fixed cost compliance solutions for over 6,000 clients across the UK.

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Operating throughout the UK with experts on Health & Safety Law on hand in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff, Citation have emerged as one of the United Kingdom’s leading health and safety and employment law consultancies.

Citation provides fixed cost compliance packages to organisations of all sizes throughout the country. Citation has been the recipient of a number of Business Awards including the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and is proud of its contribution towards a safe and fair business environment whilst at the same time relieving the burden of regulatory compliance from its clients.