The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR), places a legal duty on:

• employers;
• the self-employed;
• those in control of premises;

to notify and report some work-related accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences to the relevant enforcing authority for their work activity.

The law requires the following work-related incidents to be reported:

• deaths;
• major injuries;
• over-3-day injuries - where an employee or self-employed person is away from work or unable to work normally for more than 3 consecutive days;
• injuries to members of the public or people not at work, where they are taken from the scene of an accident to hospital;
• work-related diseases (using the F2508A report form);
• dangerous occurrences - where something happens that does not result in an injury, but could have done;
• dangerous gas fittings (for registered CORGI gas fitters only) (using the F2508G2 report form).

The DirectGov website has a host information relating to accidents at the workplace

Notification and Reporting

The quickest and most straightforward way to report an accident or incident with no need to fill in a report form is by telephoning the Incident Contact Centre on 0845 300 9923 Monday to Friday between 8.30 am and 5 pm.

You can also report by completing an interactive form on the Incident Contact Centre RIDDOR website http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/ 24 hours a day (you will be automatically sent a copy for your records).

Reports are also accepted via email (as an attachment), provided that the attachment is in the same format as the F2508 report form.

You can also post a report to:

Incident Contact Centre
Caerphilly Business Park
Caerphilly
CF83 3GG.

All information will remain confidential. The responsible person (RP) (the employer or person in control of the premises) must notify, report and record incidents. The ICC will pass your report on to the relevant enforcing authority.

You will then be sent a copy for your own records - this meets the RIDDOR requirement to keep records of all reportable incidents. It also allows you to correct any errors or omissions.

Reporting out of normal working hours

You should only contact your enforcing authority out of hours in the following circumstances:

• fatal accidents
• accidents where several workers have been seriously injured
• accidents resulting in serious injury to a member of the public
• accidents and incidents causing major disruption, such as evacuation of people, closure of roads, large numbers of people going to hospital etc