Reporting
of Deaths, Injuries and other Incidents
This page sets out what work-related incidents should
be reported to the enforcing authorities.
If having read below you are still unclear about whether
a particular incident should have been reported or need
some assistance relating to the reporting of incidents
please contact us.
The Reporting of Injuries, Dangerous Occurrences and
Diseases Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) requires employers
and others to notify either the Health and Safety Executive
or Local Authority by the 'quickest practicable means'
of certain kinds of incident.
In general terms the incident should be reported to:
- the Health and
Safety Executive - when the incident arose as a
result of the activities of a factory, a building
site, a mine, a farm, a fairground, a quarry, a
railway, a chemical plant, an offshore and nuclear
installation a school or a hospital.
- the Local Authority
- when the incident arose as a result of service
sector activities - including warehouses, residential
homes, shops, offices etc
Deaths
The death of any person who "dies as a result of
an accident arising out of or in connection with work"
should be reported. This includes not only employees
and the self-employed but also 'members of the public'
who have died as a result of work activities. For example,
the death of a person walking on a pavement who is killed
through collapsing scaffold or the death of a person
from activities in a private care home.
This relates to deaths that take place upto a year and
a day after the incident in question and it only relates
to deaths that occur in Britain.
'Work-related' Road deaths
Most deaths resulting from a vehicle on the road
do not have to be reported. The exceptions are
if that person:
| (a) |
was
killed as a result of exposure to a substance
being conveyed by the vehicle; or |
| (b) |
was
either himself engaged in, or was killed as
a result of the activities of another person
who was at the time of the accident engaged
in, work connected with the loading or unloading
of any article or substance onto or off the
vehicle; or |
| (c)
|
was
either himself engaged in, or was killed as
a result of the activities of another person
who was at the time of the accident engaged
in, work on or alongside a road, being work
concerned with the construction, demolition,
alteration, repair or maintenance of- |
| |
| (i) |
the road or the markings or equipment
thereon; |
| (ii) |
the verges,
fences, hedges or other boundaries of
the road; |
| (iii) |
pipes
or cables on, under, over or adjacent
to the road; or |
| (iv) |
buildings
or structures adjacent to or over the
road; or |
|
| (d) |
was killed as a result of an accident involving
a train. |
Hospital Deaths
Most deaths in a hospital are not reported to
the authorities. The regulations state that
"an accident
causing death or injury to a person arising out
of the conduct of any operation on, or any examination
or other medical treatment of, that person which
is administered by, or conducted under the supervision
of, a registered medical practitioner or a registered
dentist"
need not be reported.
Major Injuries
Certain kinds of injuries are defined as "major
injuries" and they must be reported as a major
injury. These are:
- Any fracture, other
than to the fingers, thumbs or toes.
- Any amputation.
- Dislocation of
the shoulder, hip, knee or spine.
- Loss of sight (whether
temporary or permanent).
- A chemical or hot
metal burn to the eye or any penetrating injury
to the eye.
- Any injury resulting
from an electric shock or electrical burn (including
any electrical burn caused by arcing or arcing products)
leading to unconsciousness or requiring resuscitation
or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours.
- Any other injury-
(a) leading
to hypothermia, heat-induced illness or to unconsciousness;
(b) requiring resuscitation; or
(c) requiring admittance to hospital for more
than 24 hours.
- Loss of consciousness
caused by asphyxia or by exposure to a harmful substance
or biological agent.
- Either of the following
conditions which result from the absorption of any
substance by inhalation, ingestion or through the
skin-
(a) acute illness requiring medical treatment;
or
(b) loss of consciousness.
- Acute illness which
requires medical treatment where there is reason
to believe that this resulted from exposure to a
biological agent or its toxins or infected material.
'Work-related Road
Injuries: the same situation applies as with deaths
(see above).
Hospital Injuries: the same situation applies
as with deaths (see above).
Over-Three Day Injuries
The Regulations states that an injury that results in
a worker being off work for more than three days should
be reported to the authorities. The Regulations state
that:
where a person
at work is incapacitated for work of a kind which
he might reasonably be expected to do, either under
his contract of employment, or, if there is no such
contract, in the normal course of his work, for more
than three consecutive days (excluding the day of
the accident but including any days which would not
have been working days) because of an injury resulting
from an accident arising out of or in connection with
work [other than a major injury], the responsible
person shall as soon as practicable and, in any event,
within 10 days of the accident send a report thereof
to the relevant enforcing authority on a form approved
for the purposes of this regulation, unless within
that period he makes a report thereof to the Executive
by some other means so approved."
This does not relate to
members of the public.
Dangerous Occurrences
A number of types of incident that do not actually result
in a death or injury have to be reported to the authorities.
They are not listed here.
Occupational Diseases
Schedule 3 of RIDDOR sets out which Occupational Diseases
should be reported to the authorities. They are not
listed here.
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