Health and safety - accident reporting

Contents

• Accidents and Ill Health
• What do I need to report?
• How do I report an accident, work-related disease or a near miss?
• What will happen once I have reported the incident?
• Contact details

Accidents and Ill Health

Health and safety law puts duties on employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises to report serious workplace accidents, work-related diseases and “specified dangerous occurrences” (near misses).

The responsible person, usually the employer or person in control of the premises, must report all relevant incidents and keep appropriate records.

What do I need to report?

You only need to report the most serious incidents. For most businesses a reportable incident is a rare event. You need to report: 

• deaths
• major injuries
• over-three-day injuries resulting in three days absence   
• reportable diseases
• near misses.

 Most reportable incidents concern employees and contractors but there are some cases where you will need to report injuries to members of the public. 

You are not personally expected to remember a list of what injuries, diseases and near misses are reportable but you must be aware that, if there is a serious incident in the workplace, you will need to check to see whether you need to report it or not.

Further details of reportable incidents including definitions and details of major injuries, reportable diseases and dangerous occurrences can be found at the HSE Report an incident website

If you are still unsure whether to report an incident or not, contact the Food and Safety Team for further advice.

How do I report an accident, work-related disease or a near miss?

You should report these to a ‘one-stop’ UK-wide Incident Contact Centre (ICC) which receives reportable incidents from businesses.  You can contact the ICC by:

Telephone: 0845 300 99 23 (a local rate call)

Online: www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/online.htm

E-mail: riddor@connaught.plc.uk

Post:Incident Contact Centre, Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly, CF83 3GG

The ICC collates all incidents and then sends them by a secure webpage to the relevant enforcing authority for action.  The information you provide enables the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities, to identify where and how risks arise, and to investigate serious accidents.

Details of enforcing authorities can be found at the Health and safety regulation and inspection.

What will happen once I have reported the incident?

Details of all accidents and work-related ill health in the workplace passed to us by the ICC will be checked.  An officer will carry out an investigation depending how serious the incident is or if further information is needed about the incident. The investigation will aim to prevent similar incidents occurring in that workplace either by providing guidance and advice, or, if serious offences are found, by the use of enforcement action.

You can use the following information and links to find out more information about reporting workplace accidents, work-related diseases and dangerous occurrences:

Further advice on incident reporting can be found at the HSE Report an Incident website  

Buy the HSE book — A guide to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995, ISBN 9780717662906. You can download the book for free.

‘Contains public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive and licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0’.