As part of the Government’s commitment to reducing the burden of health & safety regulations on business, from 6th April 2012 the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) changed.

The over three day injury reporting requirement increased from over three days to over seven days incapacitation. The day the accident occurred does not count towards making up the seven days but weekends and rest days will count.  The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has estimated that the change to RIDDOR regulations will lead to a fall in the number of incidents that must be reported of around 30%, an average of around 30,000 fewer reports per year. 

The RIDDOR regulations require employers and anyone else with responsibility for health and safety within a workplace, to report and keep records of:

• Work related deaths
• Serious injuries
• Cases of diagnosed industrial disease, and
• Certain Near Misses (Dangerous Occurrences)

Further definitions of reportable dangerous occurrences are available here.

In addition, the deadline by which the over-seven-day injury must be reported has increased to fifteen days from the day of the accident.

Employers and others with responsibilities under RIDDOR are still required to keep a record of all over-three day-injuries. This does not mean that you can ignore incidents that result in less than seven days incapacity. You must still maintain comprehensive records and investigate all incidents.  Qdos advise that these should be recorded in the BI510 accident book.

What do I need to do now?
Ensure your policies and procedures are up-to-date with the latest regulation changes – a current accident investigation policy is available to download.

Appointed persons and those within the organisation responsible or involved with maintaining accident records and/or the reporting of accidents should familiarise themselves with the latest online reporting procedure, further advice is available with Chamber HR