Accidents are part of our everyday lives and are not completely avoidable no matter how active your safety management process is. It’s impossible to be able to foresee all possible circumstances which can result in work-related injury and on rare occasions, death. As these incidents, by law, need reporting to RIDDOR; It is of great importance to be able to understand the basics of RIDDOR legislation, and how to report these occurrences.
RIDDOR stands for Reporting of Injuries, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
As an employer or the workplace manager, it is your duty towards the employees to keep an updated record of workplace incidents and report those which result in the following:
- Fractures (except fractures to fingers, toes, and thumbs)
- Permanent eyesight loss (or reduction in one or both eyes)
- Amputation
- Enclosed Space Injury (Resuscitation, heat-induced illness, hypothermia etc.)
- Unconsciousness (from asphyxia/head injury etc)
- Scalping (“Scalping is the traumatic separation or peeling of the skin from the head due to an accident, eg hair becoming entangled in machinery. Lacerations, where the skin is not separated from the head, are not included, nor are surgical procedures where skin removal is deliberate.”)
- Crush Injury (which causes damage to the brain and/or internal organs; Injury to head/torso)
- Burn Injury (which causes damage to eyes, vital organs or which covers more than 10% of an individual)
When to report these occurrences.
The incident must be reported within 10 days however there are a few exceptions. For example, if the individual is incapacitated for more than 7 days, you will be allowed a maximum of 15 days to report the incident; However, for occupational diseases, these must be reported immediately after you are aware!
Please note the information above is only a summary of RIDDOR reporting and does not consist of every occurrence which is to be reported. For more information or to report an incident please visit the HSE website: http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/
