Deaths and injuries

Deaths

A death must be reported if:

• it results from a work accident;
• a worker sustains an occupational injury;
• it results from a suicide on a relevant transport system (this is considered to be an accident for the purpose of RIDDOR); or
• it results from an act of physical violence to a worker.

Injuries to people at work

RIDDOR gives two types of injuries that must be reported if the person was at work:

• ‘major injuries’; and
• ‘over-seven-day injuries’.

Major injuries

These include:

• a fracture, other than to fingers, thumbs and toes;
• amputation;
• dislocation of the shoulder, hip, knee or spine;
• loss of sight (temporary or permanent);
• chemical or hot metal burn to the eye or any penetrating injury to the eye;
• injury resulting from an electric shock or electrical burn leading to unconsciousness, resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours;
• any other injury leading to hypothermia, heat-induced illness, unconsciousness, resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours;
• unconsciousness caused by asphyxia or exposure to a harmful substance or biological agent;
• an acute illness requiring medical treatment;
• loss of consciousness arising from absorption of any substance by inhalation, ingestion or through the skin; and/or
• acute illness requiring medical treatment where there is reason to believe that this resulted from exposure to a biological agent, its toxins or infected material.

Over-seven-day injuries

From 6 April 2012, the law has introduced the over-seven-day injury category. This is where an employee, or self-employed person, is away from work or unable to perform their normal work duties for more than seven consecutive days (not counting the day of the accident).

Over-three-day injuries

From 6 April 2012, you do not have report over-three-day injuries but you must keep a record of them (see 2012 change). If you are an employer, who has to keep an accident book, the record you make in this will be enough.

Injuries to people not at work

You must report injuries to members of the public or people who are not at work if they are injured following an accident that arises out of, or in connection with, work and are taken from the scene of an accident to hospital for treatment.

If the injured person was already at a hospital, the report only needs to be made if the injury is a ‘major injury’.

Diseases and incidents

Occupational Diseases

Employers and self-employed people must report occupational diseases. This must be done when they receive a written diagnosis from a doctor that they, or an employee, is suffering from one of these conditions and the sufferer has been doing the work activities listed for that illness.

Dangerous Occurrences

Dangerous occurrences are certain, listed near-miss events. Not every near-miss event must be reported. There are 21 categories of dangerous occurrences that are relevant to all workplaces, for example:

• the collapse, overturning or failure of load-bearing parts of lifts and lifting equipment;
• electrical short circuits or overloads causing a fire or explosion, which results in the stoppage of the plant for more than 24 hours or has the potential to cause death;
• the accidental release of a biological agent likely to cause severe human illness; and
• the accidental release of any substance that may damage health (not applicable offshore).

Gas Incidents

If you are a distributor, filler, importer or supplier of flammable gas and you learn, either directly or indirectly, that someone has died or suffered a major injury in connection with the gas you distributed, filled, imported or supplied, this can be reported online.

If you are a gas engineer, registered with the Gas Safe Register, you must provide details of any gas appliances or fittings that you consider to be dangerous to the extent that people could die or suffer a major injury. This may be due to the design, construction, installation, modification or servicing, and could result in:

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

Last Updated on Wednesday, May 8, 2024