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There is just one week left to take part in a public consultation to help shape the future of workplace incident reporting in the UK.
For the last couple of months, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – national regulator for workplace health and safety – has been inviting businesses, employers, health practitioners and industry stakeholders to have their say on regulations that underpin how work-related injuries, ill health and dangerous occurrences are reported, known as RIDDOR.
What is RIDDOR?
RIDDOR is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) that ensures that employers keep records of all work-related injuries, diseases, dangerous occurrences (including near misses) and any fatalities.
This set of regulations identifies a list of what the HSE wants to know about incidents that could be related to failures of lifting equipment or pressure systems and accidents such as broken bones, large burns or injuries causing over seven days off work.
It is used to ensure that all authorities are aware of work-related accidents and incidents to be able to track any dangers, investigate why something might have gone wrong and ensure businesses prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Depending on the incident or accident, the relevant authority can respond accordingly to keep people safe.
Under the RIDDOR framework, an accident is a type of incident which is separate, identifiable, unintended and causes physical injury.
People might not always know the ins and outs of the legislation, but they’ve usually heard of RIDDOR or reportable injuries.
So, what does the RIDDOR consultation mean for health and safety?
The consultation provides an opportunity for everyone to share their views on the wording used by HSE and their understanding of RIDDOR.
This will allow the HSE to update regulations that underpin how work-related injuries, ill health and dangerous occurrences are reported to strengthen protections for workers and to lessen administrative burden on businesses.
The HSE are looking to clarify some of the wording, so that when they’re getting RIDDOR reports in they are more accurate and there’s no ambiguity in the incidents and the investigations that take place.
The aim of the consultation is for anyone to go on to the HSE website and give their feedback. While health and safety specialists are used to dealing with and reading through legislation and working out what needs to be reported, it is not as obvious to people not working in the industry.
They are not used to the language that the HSE uses and so hopefully this will make that legislation clearer for people and give them a wider knowledge base.
This will also lead to a revision of the list of some of the incidents and dangerous occurrences that they want to know about, to better reflect modern workplace risks.
Still time to have your say
The consultation runs until next Tuesday, 7th July 2026.
For more information and details on how to submit a response visit https://consultations.hse.gov.uk/hse/proposals-riddor-2013/
If you have any questions about what this might mean for your business, or any queries about RIDDOR, contact us on 01604 930380.
