What must a builder report under RIDDOR, and by when?

The ‘responsible person’ under regulation 3. On a site with several firms on it, that depends on who was hurt.

• An employee is hurt. Their employer reports it, wherever they were working. If your bricklayer is injured on somebody else’s site, the report is yours.
• A self-employed person is hurt. The person in control of the premises reports it. On a construction site that is usually the principal contractor, or the contractor running the site where there is only one.
• A member of the public is hurt. The person in control of the premises reports it.
• A dangerous occurrence happens. The employer of anyone involved, and otherwise the person in control of the premises.
• A disease is diagnosed. The employer, for an employee. A self-employed person working on a construction site reports their own diagnosis.

HSE adds a case that matters to small builders: a self-employed person who has a reportable accident on their own premises or in domestic premises reports it themselves. A sole trader who breaks a wrist falling from a ladder in a client’s kitchen makes the report.

NoteRegulation 16 gives a defence to anyone unaware of the circumstances, but only if they took all reasonable steps to be made aware in time. A principal contractor that never asks subcontractors to report injuries to it will struggle to rely on it.

The injury has to come from a work-related accident: a separate, identifiable, unintended event that causes physical injury. A gradual injury from repetitive lifting is not an accident. An accident can be reportable even where nobody was to blame.

Deaths (regulation 6)

Any death of any person resulting from a work-related accident. If an employee dies within one year of a reportable injury, the employer notifies the death too.

Specified injuries to workers (regulation 4(1))

• Any bone fracture diagnosed by a registered medical practitioner, other than to a finger, thumb or toe.
• Amputation of an arm, hand, finger, thumb, leg, foot or toe.
• Any injury diagnosed by a registered medical practitioner as being likely to cause permanent blinding or reduction in sight in one or both eyes.
• Any crush injury to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs in the chest or abdomen.
• Any burn injury (including scalding) which covers more than 10% of the whole body’s total surface area, or causes significant damage to the eyes, respiratory system or other vital organs.
• Any degree of scalping requiring hospital treatment.
• Loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia.
• Any other injury arising from working in an enclosed space which leads to hypothermia or heat-induced illness, or requires resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours.

Over-seven-day injuries (regulation 4(2))

A worker incapacitated for routine work for more than seven consecutive days, not counting the day of the accident. Weekends and rest days count. ‘Incapacitated for routine work’ includes somebody who comes in but cannot do their normal duties, so an operative on light duties is still counting.

Members of the public (regulation 5)

A person not at work who is injured by a work-related accident and taken from the scene to hospital for treatment. HSE says an X-ray alone is not treatment, and a precautionary trip with no injury apparent is not reportable. A passer-by hit by a falling tile and stitched in A&E is reportable.

An injury that keeps a worker off for four to seven days is recorded, not reported. More than seven consecutive days, weekends included, and it is reported within 15 days of the accident.

A dangerous occurrence is a near miss of a kind listed in Schedule 2, reportable whether or not anybody was hurt. Most near misses are not on the list and belong in your own near-miss log. These are the entries a builder is most likely to meet.

A scaffold that came down over a weekend with nobody near it can still be reportable if it meets those thresholds. The inspection record will be the first thing asked for: see scaffold inspection requirements.

Regulation 8 lists six, and each is reportable only when the person’s work involves the linked exposure. Most can arise from building work.

• Hand-arm vibration syndrome, where the work involves regular use of percussive or vibrating tools, or holding materials subject to percussive or vibrating processes.
• Carpal tunnel syndrome, where the work involves regular use of percussive or vibrating tools.
• Occupational dermatitis, where the work involves significant or regular exposure to a known skin sensitiser or irritant. HSE names cement, epoxy resins and wet work, and names construction among the riskiest kinds of work.
• Occupational asthma, where the work involves significant or regular exposure to a known respiratory sensitiser. HSE names wood dusts and epoxy resin fumes.
• Tendonitis or tenosynovitis in the hand or forearm, where the work is physically demanding and involves frequent, repetitive movements. HSE gives block-laying as an example.
• Cramp of the hand or forearm, where the work involves prolonged periods of repetitive movement of the fingers, hand or arm.

Regulation 9 adds any cancer attributed to occupational exposure to a known carcinogen. HSE’s examples are mesothelioma or lung cancer after occupational exposure to asbestos, and cancer of the nasal cavity or sinuses after exposure to wood dust. Most of these diseases come from substances you are already required to control, which is the subject of COSHH for builders.

NoteA disease is reportable once a doctor diagnoses it. HSE says an employee should give the diagnosis to the employer in writing, and a self-employed person needs only a verbal diagnosis. The report then goes in without delay.

The over-seven-day clock is the one firms miss, because it starts before anybody knows it applies. An illustrative example: an operative twists a knee on Monday 2 November 2026. Tuesday 3 to Monday 9 November is seven days. If he is still unfit for his normal work on Tuesday 10 November, the injury is reportable that day, and the report is due by 17 November, fifteen days after the accident.

Online, on HSE’s RIDDOR forms. There are separate forms for an injury, a dangerous occurrence and a case of disease. An online report meets both duties in one go: it is the quickest practicable notification and the written report. When you submit, the confirmation screen gives you a RIDDOR reference number and a PDF copy to download. Keep both.

• By phone, for fatal and specified injuries to workers only: HSE’s Incident Contact Centre on 0345 300 9923, Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm. Everything else goes online.
• Out of hours: HSE says it is not an emergency service. Its duty officer on 0151 922 9235 is for a work-related death, a serious incident with multiple casualties, or one causing major disruption such as an evacuation or road closure.
• Your insurer is a separate call. HSE does not pass RIDDOR reports to insurers.

Only the responsible person should report. An injured employee or a member of the public who thinks a report has not been made can raise a concern with HSE instead.

The first hour

1. 01Make the area safe and get first aid or an ambulance. Stop the same work elsewhere on site until you know why it happened.
2. 02Keep the scene as it is where that is safe, and photograph the ladder, the sling or the board before anything moves.
3. 03Take the names of the witnesses, and of the injured person’s employer if they are not yours.
4. 04For a death or a specified injury, if you are the responsible person, phone 0345 300 9923 in office hours or report online straight away.

The first day

1. 01Decide who the responsible person is. If the injured person works for a subcontractor, tell that firm in writing; if they are self-employed on your site, the report is yours.
2. 02Check the incident against the specified injury list and Schedule 2. A broken wrist is specified; a broken finger is not.
3. 03Take statements, and pull the RAMS, the briefing record and the toolbox talk register for the task. An investigation first asks what the person had been told.
4. 04Make the online report for anything due within 10 days, and record the RIDDOR reference against the incident.

The first fortnight

1. 01Track anyone off work, counting from the day after the accident, weekends included. Day four makes it recordable; day eight makes it reportable.
2. 02Review the RAMS for the task, and brief the revised version before the work restarts.
3. 03Tell your insurer, and keep the accident book entry, the report and the photographs together.

Regulation 12 requires a record of every reportable incident, every reportable diagnosis, and every over-three-day injury. Each entry is kept for at least three years from the date it was made, at the place where the work is carried on or at your usual place of business.

Schedule 1 Part 2 sets the contents: the date and time, the place, the person’s full name, occupation and injury (or, for a member of the public, their status, such as visitor), a brief description of what happened, and for anything reported, the date and method of the report. A disease record holds the diagnosis date and the name or nature of the disease instead.

An accident book kept under social security law can serve as the record of injuries, but diseases need a separate record.

NoteRIDDOR 2013 applies in England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland still runs the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997, reported to HSENI on its own NI2508 forms. HSENI kept the old rules, so over-three-day injuries are still reportable there.

An accident report in Estimark is typed as an accident, a near miss or a dangerous occurrence, with a severity from first aid to fatal. You record whether it is RIDDOR reportable and which duty applies, and Estimark dates the deadline from the accident: ten days for a death, a specified injury, a dangerous occurrence or a member of the public taken to hospital, fifteen for an over-seven-day injury. Until somebody records the report as made, the owner and admins get a reminder email each day. The RIDDOR reference goes on the record.

Estimark does not submit anything to HSE. The report is made by you, on HSE’s own forms. The accident report sits beside the job’s versioned RAMS, the toolbox talk registers and the near-miss log, so the investigation’s first question has its answer in one place. See health and safety in Estimark and RAMS and site safety.

• Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk)
• RIDDOR explained (HSE)
• Who should report under RIDDOR (HSE)
• Types of reportable incidents (HSE)
• Reportable occupational diseases (HSE)
• How to make a RIDDOR report (HSE)
• What records do I need to keep? (HSE)
• Ways to contact HSE (HSE)
• Report an incident (HSENI)