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Accident Reporting Procedures (OBUHSN-11) Appendix 1

Accident, Incident, Dangerous Occurrence and Disease Reporting Procedures and Investigations

These Regulations came into force on 1 April 1996. From that date it was a legal requirement to report certain accidents, diseases and specified dangerous occurrences to the Health & Safety Executive.

Contact

Health and Safety enquiries

+44 (0) 1865 603060

healthandsafety@brookes.ac.uk

Types of reportable injury

Deaths

All deaths to workers and non-workers must be reported if they arise from a work related accident, including an act of physical violence to a worker. Suicides are not reportable, as the death does not result from a work-related accident.

Specified injuries to workers

The list of ‘specified injuries’ in RIDDOR 2013 (regulation 4) includes:

  • a fracture, other than to fingers, thumbs and toes
  • amputation of an arm, hand, finger, thumb, leg, foot or toe
  • permanent loss of sight or reduction of sight
  • crush injuries leading to internal organ damage
  • serious burns (covering more than 10% of the body, or damaging the eyes, respiratory system or other vital organs)
  • scalpings (separation of skin from the head) which require hospital treatment
  • unconsciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia
  • any other injury arising from working in an enclosed space, which leads to hypothermia, heat-induced illness or requires resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours.

Over-seven-day injuries to workers

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).

Injuries to non-workers

Work-related accidents involving members of the public or people who are not at work must be reported if a person is injured, and is taken from the scene of the accident to hospital for treatment to that injury. There is no requirement to establish what hospital treatment was actually provided, and no need to report incidents where people are taken to hospital purely as a precaution when no injury is apparent.

If the accident occurred at a hospital, the report only needs to be made if the injury is a ‘specified injury’ (see above).

Reportable occupational diseases

Employers and self-employed people must report diagnoses of certain occupational diseases, where these are likely to have been caused or made worse by their work.

These diseases include (regulations 8 and 9):

  • carpal tunnel syndrome
  • 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 an occupational exposure to a biological agent.

Reportable dangerous occurrences

Dangerous occurrences are certain, specified ‘near-miss’ events (incidents with the potential to cause harm.) Not all such events require reporting. There are 27 categories of dangerous occurrences that are relevant to most workplaces. For example:

  • the collapse, overturning or failure of load-bearing parts of lifts and lifting equipment;
  • plant or equipment coming into contact with overhead power lines;
  • explosions or fires causing work to be stopped for more than 24 hours.

Certain additional categories of dangerous occurrences apply to mines, quarries, offshore workplaces and certain transport systems (railways etc). For a full, detailed list, refer to the RIDDOR guidance on the health and safety executive website.

Reportable 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, lost consciousness, or been taken to hospital for treatment to an injury arising 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, lose consciousness or require hospital treatment. 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
  • inadequate removal of products of the combustion of gas.

Updated July 2014