RIDDOR Reporting - why is it important?

RIDDOR Reporting – Why is it important?

A few of our recent hub articles have highlighted the importance of accident and near miss reporting in the effective management of health and safety, but did you know that it is a criminal offence not to report certain accidents and incidents to the HSE?

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) place a legal duty on employers to report certain work-related incidents and injuries to the HSE within specified timescales. These include:

• Deaths
• Specified injuries (including but not limited to fractures (other than to fingers, toes, and thumbs), amputations, crush injuries, serious burns, potential loss of sight and loss of consciousness due to head injury),
• Over seven-day incapacitation, where a person is away from work, or unable to perform their normal work duties, for more than seven consecutive days as the result of their injury,
• Work related diseases (including but not limited to certain musculoskeletal disorders, hand arm vibration syndrome and occupational asthma), and
• Dangerous occurrences (near misses) (including but not limited to collapse, overturning or failure of load bearing parts of lifts and lifting equipment, contact with overhead powerlines, and accidental, uncontrolled release of asbestos.

Full reporting requirements can be found here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/

Both organisations and individual duty holders can be prosecuted for failing to report ‘reportable’ accidents or incidents and a recent prosecution by the HSE has highlighted the consequences of doing just that. In this case two workers sustained serious injuries as a result from falling from a mobile tower scaffold. The HSE’s investigation found that in addition to the scaffolding having not been constructed correctly by a trained individual, the company also failed to report the incident as per the RIDDOR reporting requirements.

The company pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and section 3(1) of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Regulations 2013 and was fined £20,000.

In addition to this the Managing Director of the company pleaded guilty under section 37 to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and section 3(1) of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Regulations 2013 and was ordered to complete 100 hours community service, pay compensation orders of £500 each for the two injured persons and was ordered to pay costs of £1,000.

This case serves as a stark reminder that it is not just the accident or incident itself that can lead to prosecution, but poor incident management may also leave duty holders open to prosecution. With this in mind, it is important that organisations and duty holders make sure that there are robust reporting procedures in place to ensure that RIDDOR reportable accidents and incidents are properly managed and reported in line with reporting requirements and specified timescales.

A properly implemented accident and incident reporting policy, which defines the responsibilities and procedures is a great place to start. This will help ensure prompt reporting of any relevant incidents or accidents and will help the organisation and individual duty holders discharge their duties effectively, in accordance with RIDDOR reporting requirements.

If you would like help or assistance with your accident reporting procedures and policies, please get in touch with Napthens Health and Safety team.