Ask most site managers whether they log incidents and they'll say yes. Ask whether they've always correctly identified which of those incidents needed to be reported to the HSE, and the answer gets less confident. That gap — between recording everything and reporting the right things — is where RIDDOR prosecutions tend to originate.
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 replaced the earlier 1995 version and simplified the categories somewhat. But "simplified" is relative. There are still enough categories, sub-categories, and exceptions to trip up a company that hasn't thought carefully about its reporting process.
Recording versus reporting — the fundamental distinction
Every injury that occurs at work needs to be recorded. That's your incident log, your site register, your near-miss reports. This is internal documentation and it's required regardless of severity.
Reporting is different. It means formally notifying the HSE using the RIDDOR online portal at riddor.hse.gov.uk (or by calling the incident contact centre for fatal or specified injuries). It's an external obligation, and it comes with strict deadlines.
The confusion arises because many companies either report everything (unnecessary and burdensome) or only report the most obviously serious incidents (missing a category they didn't know existed). Both approaches create problems.
What actually needs to be reported
Deaths. If a worker or member of the public dies as a result of a work-related accident, this must be reported immediately — by phone first, followed by the online form within 10 days.
Specified injuries to workers. This is the category that generates the most confusion because "specified" has a precise meaning. It includes: fractures (other than to fingers, thumbs, or toes), amputations, any injury resulting in permanent loss of sight or reduction in sight, any crush injury to the head or torso causing internal organ damage, burns covering more than 10% of the body or damaging the eyes, respiratory system, or other vital organs, any degree of scalping requiring hospital treatment, loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia, and any injury arising from working in an enclosed space requiring resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours.
Fractures to fingers, thumbs, and toes — unless they're caused by specific circumstances — are not specified injuries. This catches companies out both ways: they sometimes report finger fractures unnecessarily, and occasionally miss a more serious injury because they assumed the category was simpler.
Specified injuries must be reported within 10 days.
Over-7-day incapacitation. If a worker is incapacitated from their normal work activities for more than seven consecutive days (not counting the day of the accident, and not including non-working days if the injury spans a weekend), it must be reported. The deadline here is 15 days from the accident date.
This one is missed more often than specified injuries, partly because the seven-day counting period can span weekends and sick leave in ways that aren't always obvious, and partly because by day seven the injury no longer feels urgent enough to prompt a formal report.
Dangerous occurrences. These are defined events that must be reported even if no-one was actually hurt — because they could easily have resulted in serious injury. In construction, the relevant ones include: the collapse or partial collapse of a scaffold over 5 metres that results in a substantial part of it falling, the unintended collapse or partial collapse of any building under construction where more than 5 tonnes of material falls, an explosion or fire causing work to be stopped for more than 24 hours, and the accidental release of a biological agent likely to cause severe human illness.
Work-related diseases. Occupational asthma, occupational dermatitis, hand-arm vibration syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, and a range of other conditions diagnosed by a doctor in relation to specific types of work. These are reported when the employer receives a written diagnosis — not when the symptoms first appear.
Injuries to non-workers. If a member of the public (or someone not employed by you) is injured as a result of a work-related accident and they're taken to hospital from the scene, it must be reported. This applies even if the injury turns out to be minor once they're assessed.
The deadlines in practice
For most specified injuries and over-7-day cases, the clock starts from the date of the accident — not the date you find out about it, not the date the worker comes back and confirms they can't manage their usual duties. Waiting to see how an injury develops before deciding whether to report is one of the more common ways companies find themselves in breach.
The sensible approach is to assess reportability at the time of the incident, and then set a reminder if you're in the seven-day incapacitation window. If the worker is still off at day seven, report immediately.
What happens if you don't report
Failure to report under RIDDOR is a criminal offence. In the Magistrates' Court, the maximum fine is £20,000. In the Crown Court, there's no statutory upper limit. The HSE also publishes enforcement notices and prosecutions — so a RIDDOR failure can become publicly associated with your company name in ways that matter commercially.
Incidents are also used by HSE to inform their inspection programme. If you're reporting, they have the information. If you're not, and they later discover an injury that should have been reported, you've compounded the original problem.
Building a reliable reporting process
The problem with RIDDOR compliance is usually not that companies are deliberately avoiding their obligations — it's that the process isn't clear enough to work reliably when incidents actually occur. People are dealing with the immediate situation, managing the worker, potentially calling an ambulance, and RIDDOR is the last thing on their mind.
That's why the reporting decision needs to be built into your incident management process rather than left to individual judgement in the moment. When someone records an incident on SiteProof, the built-in RIDDOR wizard walks through the determination questions — was anyone injured, are they a worker or a member of the public, what type of injury — and gives a clear conclusion with a reminder of the reporting deadline. The decision is made at the time of the report, not reconstructed days later.
If you'd like to see how that works in practice, you can try SiteProof free for 14 days.