RIDDOR – Recent Changes

RIDDOR – Recent Changes

RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. It is a set of regulations in the United Kingdom that requires employers, the self-employed, and those in control of premises to report certain serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases, and specified dangerous occurrences (near misses).

Key Points of RIDDOR:

Purpose: The regulations are intended to ensure that serious workplace incidents are properly reported and investigated to prevent future occurrences. They help to identify and reduce the risks in the workplace.

What Must Be Reported:

• Deaths: All work-related fatalities must be reported.
• Major Injuries: Includes fractures (other than fingers, thumbs, and toes), amputations, serious burns, loss of sight (temporary or permanent), and other specific injuries.
• Over-seven-day Injuries: Work-related injuries that result in the injured person being away from work or unable to perform their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days.
• Occupational Diseases: Diseases that are likely to have been caused or made worse by work, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, dermatitis, asthma, and others.
• Dangerous Occurrences: Specific near-miss events that could have led to significant harm, such as the collapse of scaffolding, explosion, or chemical spillage.

Who Must Report:

• Employers
• Self-employed individuals
• People in control of premises (e.g., landlords, facility managers)

How to Report:

Reports are usually made to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) via their online reporting system, though telephone reporting is also available for fatal and specified major injuries.

Legal Requirement:

Reporting under RIDDOR is a legal requirement in the UK, and failure to report a reportable incident is an offense and can lead to legal action.

What’s Changed?

RIDDOR Form Changes Effective from 11 April 2024

The changes aim to simplify the reporting process for responsible persons.

Key Changes Include:

• Question Order: Questions regarding the “severity of injuries” are now placed at the beginning, enabling responsible persons to quickly determine if an incident is reportable.
• Pop-Up Messages: New pop-up messages will redirect the responsible person if the incident is not reportable or if a different form should be used.
• Enhanced Guidance: Improved guidance is provided throughout the form via “additional information” and “help” boxes.
• Mandatory Questions: Six specific, mandatory questions will replace the free text “describe what happened” box on the injury form. Similar mandatory questions are introduced on the case of disease form. An “any other relevant information” field remains on both forms for additional details.
• Offshore Disease Reporting: The category for reporting cases of disease offshore has been removed, as these are now reported under ROGI.
• Volunteer Reporting: A separate category for volunteers has been added to provide statistics on volunteer accidents.
• Gender Questions: The mandatory gender question options now include “prefer not to say” and “I identify in another way”.

The supporting RIDDOR guidance has also been updated, offering increased clarity and easier navigation for responsible persons.

Please Note: There is no change to RIDDOR itself or the reporting criteria. For more information and to familiarise yourself with the new form, please refer to the updated RIDDOR guidance.