Who should report?

Only 'responsible persons' including employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises should submit reports under RIDDOR. If you are an employee (or representative) or a member of the public wishing to report an incident about which you have concerns, please refer to our advice.

An employer or person in control of premises

If you are an employer

If you are an employer, you must report any work-related deaths, and certain work-related injuries, cases of disease, and near misses involving your employees wherever they are working.

If you are in control of premises,

If you are in control of premises, you must report any work-related deaths, certain injuries to members of the public and self-employed people on your premises, and dangerous occurrences (some near miss incidents) that occur on your premises.

Self-employed

If you are working in someone else's work premises and suffer either a specified injury or an over-seven-day injury, then the person in control of the premises will be responsible for reporting, so, where possible, you should make sure they know about it.

If there is a reportable accident while you are working on your own premises or in domestic premises, or if a doctor tells you that you have a work-related disease or condition, then you need to report it.

Members of the public, employees, injured persons and their representatives

The RIDDOR reporting system is only ;for notification of those incidents which require reports under the RIDDOR regulations. Reports should only be submitted 'Responsible Persons' with duties under these regulations, such as employers, the self-employed, and those in control of work premises where incidents occur. It is not appropriate for injured persons, members of the public or others who do not have duties under RIDDOR to use this reporting system.

If you are an employee and have suffered a work-related injury, or have been diagnosed as suffering from a work related reportable disease, you should inform your employer. If you are concerned that your employer or other Responsible Person has not made a required report you should:

  • ask them if they have reported the incident, and/or;
  • approach your employee or TU representative

If you still feel that your accident or work related disease has not been properly reported, you may raise your concern with HSE.

If you wish to tell HSE about an incident, or have concerns about ongoing risks to health and safety, please refer to our advice.

An employment agency

The employment status of agency workers is not always clear to the worker, or to the organisations who are supplied with labour. In many cases, the employment agency is the legal employer, and is under the same legal obligations as any other employer to report accidents and ill health to their employees. In other cases, for instance where workers are self employed, the duty is on the host business to report accidents as the person in control of the premises where an accident occurs. Self-employed persons are responsible for reporting accidents which occur on their own premises, and ill-health conditions.

In practice, agencies should ensure that responsibility for reporting under RIDDOR is clearly assigned to the appropriate person based on the particular facts of the employment relationship. Agencies should ensure that reporting responsibilities are clearly understood by host businesses and the workers.

A gas supplier

If you are a conveyor, filler, importer or supplier of flammable gas and you learn, either directly or indirectly that someone has died, been found unconscious or has been taken to hospital in connection with the gas you distributed, filled, imported or supplied, then this must be reported. This includes exposure to unburnt gas, products of combustion ie Carbon Monoxide or fire/explosion incidents. In practice the reporting duties are usually undertaken by the gas Emergency Service Providers (ESPs) representing gas conveyors.

A gas engineer

If you are a gas engineer registered with the Gas Safe Register, you or your employer must provide details of any gas fittings, including appliances and flues or ventilation used with the appliances, that you consider to be dangerous, to such an extent that people could die, be rendered unconscious or need to be taken to hospital, because the design, construction, installation, modification or incorrect servicing could result in:

  • an accidental leakage of gas;
  • incomplete combustion of gas or ;
  • inadequate removal of products of the combustion of gas.

Fittings that are dangerous solely due to lack of maintenance are not reportable

Working offshore

For most incidents at an offshore installation, the responsible person will be the dutyholder under the Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works (Management and Administration) Regulations 1995.

For diving projects, the responsible person in relation to accidents and dangerous occurrences is the diving contractor.

HSE Energy Division can provide specialist advice on the reporting procedure for offshore workers.

Special cases (Mines, quarries, pipelines and wells)

In the following special cases, the responsible person is:

  • In relation to a mine, the manager of that mine;
  • In relation to a closed tip, the owner of the mine associated with that tip;
  • In relation to a quarry, the operator of that quarry
  • In relation to a dangerous occurrence:
    • At a pipeline, the operator of that pipeline;
    • At a well (other than a water well), the person appointed to supervise operations, or where no person is appointed, the licensee under Section 3 of the Petroleum Act 1998.

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Updated 2024-02-09