2. Who should report under RIDDOR
Reports should only be submitted by the ‘responsible person' with duties under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR).
Responsible people will be:
- employers (in relation to workers)
- some self-employed people
- those in control of work premises when a reportable work-related accident or event has occurred
Who should not report
You should not make a report if you are not the responsible person under RIDDOR. So you should not report if you are:
- an injured person (unless you are self-employed)
- a member of the public
- others who do not have duties under RIDDOR
Raising a concern with HSE
If you are worker, acting on a worker’s behalf, or a member of the public, you can tell us about a work-related accident or an ongoing risk to health and safety in the workplace, by raising a concern with HSE[5].
Reporting arrangements for different job roles
If you are working in someone else's work premises and suffer either a specified injury or an over-7-day injury, then the person in control of the premises will be responsible for reporting. So, where possible, you should make sure they know about it.
If there is a reportable accident while you are working on your own premises or in domestic premises, or if a doctor tells you that you have a work-related disease or condition, then you need to report it.
The RIDDOR reporting system is only for notification of those incidents which require reports under the RIDDOR regulations. Reports should only be submitted by 'responsible persons' with duties under these regulations, such as employers, the self-employed, and those in control of work premises where incidents occur. It is not appropriate for injured people, members of the public or others who do not have duties under RIDDOR to use this reporting system.
If you are an employee and have suffered a work-related injury, or have been diagnosed as suffering from a work related reportable disease, you should inform your employer. If you are concerned that your employer or other responsible person has not made a required report you should:
- ask them if they have reported the incident, and/or
- approach your employee or TU representative
If you still feel that your accident or work-related disease has not been properly reported, wish to tell HSE about an incident, or have concerns about ongoing risks to health and safety, you may raise your concern with HSE[8].
The employment status of agency workers is not always clear to the worker, or to the organisations who are supplied with labour. In many cases, the employment agency is the legal employer, and is under the same legal obligations as any other employer to report accidents and ill health to their employees.
In other cases, for instance where workers are self-employed, the duty is on the host business to report accidents as the person in control of the premises where an accident occurs. Self-employed people are responsible for reporting accidents which occur on their own premises, and ill-health conditions.
In practice, agencies should ensure that responsibility for reporting under RIDDOR is clearly assigned to the appropriate person based on the particular facts of the employment relationship. Agencies should ensure that reporting responsibilities are clearly understood by host businesses and the workers.
If you are a conveyor, filler, importer or supplier of flammable gas and you learn (either directly or indirectly) that someone has died, been found unconscious or has been taken to hospital in connection with the gas you distributed, filled, imported or supplied, then this must be reported.
This includes exposure to unburnt gas, products of combustion (carbon monoxide or fire/explosion incidents). In practice, the reporting duties are usually undertaken by the gas Emergency Service Providers (ESPs) representing gas conveyors.
If you are a gas engineer registered with the Gas Safe Register, you or your employer must provide details of any gas fittings (including appliances and flues or ventilation used with them), that you consider to be dangerous, to such an extent that people could die, be rendered unconscious or need to be taken to hospital, because the design, construction, installation, modification or incorrect servicing could result in:
- an accidental leakage of gas
- incomplete combustion of gas, or
- inadequate removal of products of the combustion of gas
Fittings that are dangerous solely due to lack of maintenance are not reportable. You can find more information on when to report gas incidents in our examples of reportable incidents[11].
For most incidents at an offshore installation, the responsible person will be the dutyholder under the Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works (Management and Administration) Regulations 1995.
For diving projects, the responsible person in relation to accidents and dangerous occurrences is the diving contractor.
HSE's Energy Division can provide specialist advice on the reporting procedure for offshore workers.
In the following special cases, the responsible person is:
- in relation to a mine, the manager of that mine
- in relation to a closed tip, the owner of the mine associated with that tip
- in relation to a quarry, the operator of that quarry
- in relation to a dangerous occurrence:
- at a pipeline, the operator of that pipeline
- at a well (other than a water well), the person appointed to supervise operations, or where no person is appointed, the licensee under Section 3 of the Petroleum Act 1998