RIDDOR reporting: are you ready for the change?
As a result of the Government’s health safety reform programme, RIDDOR has been streamlined and amended. For those of you still struggling to get to grips with the changes, this guide provides a brief summary.
RIDDOR Explained
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations place a legal duty on employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises (the Responsible Person) to report certain serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases and specified dangerous occurrences (near misses). Other than for certain gas incidents, deaths and injuries only need to be reported only when:
• there has been an accident which caused the injury
• the accident was work-related
• the injury is of a type which is reportable

Please note: In relation to RIDDOR, an accident is a separate, identifiable, unintended incident, which causes physical injury. This specifically includes acts of non-consensual violence to people at work.
RIDDOR Changes
As of 2013, the HSE have implemented changes to RIDDOR to clarify and simplify the reporting requirements. According to the HSE, the main changes are in the following areas:
• The classification of ‘major injuries’ to workers is replaced with a shorter list of ‘specified injuries’.
• The existing schedule detailing 47 types of industrial disease is replaced with eight categories of reportable work-related illness.
• Fewer types of ‘dangerous occurrence’ require reporting.
There are no significant changes to the reporting requirements for:
• fatal accidents;
• accidents to non-workers (members of the public); and
• accidents resulting in a worker being unable to perform their normal range of duties for more than seven days

How an incident at work is reported and the criteria that determine whether an incident should be investigated by the enforcing authority remain the same.

For more information on how the RIDDOR changes could affect you, please visit the RoSPA Workplace Safety Blog.