News
wednesday 13th august 2025
Injury reporting in construction – What are RIDDOR requirements?
Working in construction comes with risks, and the most effective way to minimise these is to foster a culture of safety on-site. To do so, employers have a duty to record accidents and near misses in order to keep clear records of incidents and to learn for next time how safety can be improved. This article looks at the legal requirements for injury reporting, as well as steps employers can take to put safety at the centre of their operations.
Which injuries need to be reported?
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) outlines the types of injuries and incidents that must legally be reported.
The regulations state that employers are obliged to report to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) any work-related accidents that result in death or a reportable injury. For the purposes of RIDDOR, reportable injuries listed under Regulation 4 can include fractures (except to a finger, thumb or toe), amputations, sight loss, any burn injury, any crush injury, any injury that leads to hypothermia or heat-induced illness, or any work-induced illness or injury that causes a person to be incapacitated for routine work for more than seven consecutive days.
RIDDOR reporting responsibilities
Injuries or accidents that meet the threshold for reporting must be handled by a ‘responsible person’ who has duties under RIDDOR. Typically, this will be an employer or site manager; employees and members of the public cannot use RIDDOR’s online reporting system.
The responsible person is legally obliged to make a report within certain timeframes, which will vary depending on the nature of the illness or the accident. In most cases, the report must be received by the HSE within 10 days; for accidents resulting in the over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker, employers should notify the HSE within 15 days of the incident.
A safety culture
Complying with RIDDOR is critical for employers: failing to do so can lead to a prosecution with a custodial sentence of up to two years for an individual, as well as an unlimited fine for the business.
Even for injuries and accidents that do not meet the requirements of RIDDOR, it is important to keep comprehensive records. By identifying potential risks and recurring patterns, employers can make necessary changes to improve on-site safety and help create a safety culture from which all team members can benefit.
Learning opportunities to implement best practices are present in near misses too, further emphasising the use of a comprehensive note-taking system. All employees should know who the responsible person is, understand how to report incidents through the appropriate channels and trust that their reports will be dealt with seriously.