Guidance · Reviewed August 2026
What RIDDOR stands for, exactly what is reportable, who has to report it, and the two different deadlines that catch employers out.
The short answer
RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. It requires the responsible person — usually the employer — to report certain serious work-related incidents to HSE or the local authority. Most reports are due within 10 days; over-seven-day injuries have 15 days, running from the date of the accident.
What Does RIDDOR Stand For?
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013, in force since 1 October 2013. It is UK law, enforced by the Health and Safety Executive and by local authorities depending on the sector. The 2013 version replaced a schedule of 47 industrial diseases with eight categories, and replaced the old “major injuries” list with a shorter list of “specified injuries”.
RIDDOR does not require you to report every accident. It requires you to report a defined set of serious ones. Everything else still belongs in your accident book — the two are separate obligations, and conflating them is where most confusion starts.
Who Has to Report?
The duty falls on the responsible person, which means:
- Employers, for employees and for others affected by their work
- Self-employed people, where something happens to them or to someone else because of their work
- People in control of work premises — site managers, landlords, occupiers
The injured person does not report
Nor do members of the public, and nor does a contractor unless they control the premises. If a worker is hurt on your site, the duty is yours — waiting for someone else to file it is a breach with your name on it. The only exception is a self-employed person injured by their own work.
What Is RIDDOR Reportable?
Six categories. The threshold test throughout is that the incident must arise out of, or in connection with, work.
1. Deaths
Any death resulting from a work-related accident, whether to a worker or a non-worker. Suicides are the exception. If someone dies of a reportable work injury within 365 days of it, that must be reported as a work-related fatality.
2. Specified injuries to workers
A defined list of the most serious injury types — set out in full below.
3. Over-seven-day injuries
A worker incapacitated for more than seven consecutive days by a work accident — unable to do their normal duties. The day of the accident isn’t counted; weekends and rest days are.
4. Injuries to non-workers
A member of the public injured by work and taken directly from the scene to hospital for treatment. Reportable however minor the injury turns out to be.
5. Occupational diseases
Where a doctor gives a written diagnosis of a listed disease linked to the work. Set out below.
6. Dangerous occurrences
Named near-miss events with the potential to cause serious harm — structural collapse, explosion, plant failure, lifting equipment failure. Reportable even where nobody was hurt.
Gas incidents form a further category for those who supply, fill or operate gas systems.
Specified injuries in full
- Fractures, other than to fingers, thumbs and toes — including a break, crack or chip. Reportable when diagnosed or confirmed by a doctor, including on a fit note. A self-diagnosed “suspected fracture” is not reportable.
- Amputation of an arm, hand, finger, thumb, leg, foot or toe — note that unlike fractures, amputation of a finger, thumb or toe is reportable. Covers both traumatic amputation at the time and surgical amputation afterwards.
- Any injury likely to lead to permanent loss of sight, or reduction in sight
- Any crush injury to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs
- Serious burns covering more than 10% of the body, or damaging the eyes, respiratory system or other vital organs
- Any scalping requiring hospital treatment
- Any loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia
- Any other injury from working in an enclosed space leading to hypothermia or heat-induced illness, or requiring resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours
Note the exclusion: fractures to fingers, thumbs and toes are not specified injuries. They become reportable only if they cause over-seven-day incapacitation.
Reportable occupational diseases
- Carpal tunnel syndrome — but only where the work involves regular use of hand-held power tools, either percussive (impact drills, jackhammers) or vibrating (sanders, grinders, chainsaws). Where the work involves typing or similar repetitive movements, it is not reportable under RIDDOR.
- Severe cramp of the hand or forearm
- Occupational dermatitis
- Hand-arm vibration syndrome
- Occupational asthma
- Tendonitis or tenosynovitis of the hand or forearm
- Any occupational cancer
- Any disease attributed to occupational exposure to a biological agent
These sit under regulation 8, and the trigger is a confirmed diagnosis by a doctor — not the onset of symptoms. Employees must give you that diagnosis in writing; if you are self-employed, a verbal diagnosis is enough.
Several of these — dermatitis, asthma, occupational cancer — arise from exposure to substances, which is where COSHH and health surveillance connect to your reporting duty.
Reporting Deadlines
There are two distinct clocks, and confusing them is the most common RIDDOR failing. A late report is a breach even where everything else is correct.
| Category | Notify | Formal report |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | Without delay | Within 10 days |
| Specified injuries | Without delay | Within 10 days |
| Non-worker taken to hospital | Without delay | Within 10 days |
| Dangerous occurrences | Without delay | Within 10 days |
| Occupational diseases | On written diagnosis | Within 10 days |
| Over-seven-day injuries | — | Within 15 days of the accident |
The 15-day trap
The 15 days run from the date of the accident, not from the day the seven-day threshold is crossed. If someone is injured on the 1st and is still unable to work on the 9th — the point at which the duty is triggered — your report is due by the 16th. You have eight days left, not fifteen.
This is misread more often than any other number in the Regulations, and it is where prosecutions tend to begin.
Over three days: record, don’t report
If a worker is incapacitated for more than three consecutive days, you must record the injury — but you do not report it to HSE unless it reaches the over-seven-day threshold. The reporting trigger moved from three days to seven in April 2012; the recording duty at three days stayed.
Incapacitated means absent, or unable to do work they would reasonably be expected to do as part of their normal duties. Someone on light duties who cannot do their own job still counts.
How to Report
Reports go through HSE’s online reporting service. Telephone reporting remains available on 0345 300 9923, Monday to Friday, for fatal and specified injuries only. The old paper F2508 forms were phased out for most categories years ago.
The online system issues a reference number. Keep it — it is your evidence that you reported in time.
Records
Records of reportable incidents must be kept for at least three years. Any format is acceptable, paper or electronic, provided it is readily accessible. A record needs the date and method of reporting, the date, time and place of the event, personal details of those involved, and a brief description of what happened.
RIDDOR and the accident book are not the same thing
Every workplace accident goes in the accident book, however minor. Only the six categories above go to HSE. Insurance notifications and your own internal investigation are separate again. Four different obligations, frequently collapsed into one — see incidents and reporting and what to do after a workplace accident.
Why It Matters
Failure to report is a criminal offence and can lead to enforcement action, fines or prosecution. But the more useful reason is that RIDDOR data is how patterns become visible. Slips, trips and falls, manual handling injuries and ergonomic problems tend to repeat until someone notices they are repeating.
Reported incidents also feed your risk assessment review. An accident or near miss is one of the standard triggers for revisiting controls, and an assessment unchanged after a reportable incident is difficult to defend.
Training
| If you need to… | Usual route |
|---|---|
| Understand the duty itself | RIDDOR online course, or the wider accident reporting and near miss training. |
| Investigate what happened | Accident Investigation Training or the NEBOSH HSE Introduction to Incident Investigation. |
| Lead investigations | Lead Accident Investigator — IIRSM-approved, covering root cause analysis. |
| Catch things before they happen | Managing Near Miss Reporting. Dangerous occurrences are reportable whether or not anyone was hurt. |
| Cover the whole duty | IOSH Managing Safely, or Workplace Health and Safety. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What does RIDDOR stand for?
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
Is a broken finger RIDDOR reportable?
Not as a specified injury — fractures to fingers, thumbs and toes are specifically excluded from that list. It becomes reportable only if it keeps the worker off their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days, in which case the 15-day deadline applies. A broken wrist, by contrast, is a specified injury and must be notified without delay.
How long do I have to report?
Ten days for most categories, following notification without delay for the serious ones. Over-seven-day injuries have 15 days, measured from the date of the accident rather than the date the threshold is crossed — which in practice leaves you about eight days once you know it’s reportable.
Do I report an injury to a member of the public?
If they are injured by work and taken directly from the scene to hospital for treatment, yes — regardless of how minor the injury turns out to be. Many organisations wrongly assume RIDDOR only covers their own employees.
What’s the difference between over-three-day and over-seven-day?
Over three days must be recorded internally. Over seven days must be reported to HSE. The reporting trigger changed from three to seven days in April 2012, but the recording duty at three days remained — so an injury keeping someone off for five days is a record, not a report.
Does the injured person report it themselves?
No. The duty sits with the responsible person — the employer, or whoever controls the premises. An injured employee has no reporting duty, and neither does a member of the public. The only exception is a self-employed person injured by their own work.
How long must RIDDOR records be kept?
At least three years from the date the record was made. Paper or electronic is fine, as long as it’s readily accessible.
Related Guidance
After a workplace accident →
Risk assessment →
Slips, trips and falls →
Sharps →
All guidance topics →
General guidance only, reviewed against HSE guidance and RIDDOR 2013 in August 2026. Check current reporting requirements with HSE. Envico is an independent training intermediary and is not affiliated with the HSE.