What is RIDDOR and does it affect my compensation claim?

What does RIDDOR stand for?

RIDDOR is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. It places a legal duty on employers, the self-employed and people in control of premises to notify the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) about certain workplace incidents. RIDDOR does not create a right to compensation on its own — that comes from separate personal-injury law — but it does put an official record of the incident on the HSE's system, which is often useful later.

The regulations apply across Great Britain. In Northern Ireland the equivalent duty falls on HSENI. If you are unsure which regime applies to your workplace, your solicitor can check quickly.

What must employers report under RIDDOR?

Not every accident is RIDDOR-reportable. The main categories are:

• Deaths. Any work-related death must be reported immediately, by the fastest practicable means, and confirmed in writing within ten days.
• Specified injuries. These include fractures other than to fingers, thumbs and toes; amputations; any injury that causes loss of sight (temporary or permanent); crush injuries to the head or torso; serious burns; scalpings; loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia; and any injury arising from working in an enclosed space that leads to hypothermia, heat-induced illness or resuscitation. These must be reported within ten days of the incident.
• Over-seven-day injuries. If an employee (or a self-employed person working under someone else's control) is unable to carry out their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days as a result of a workplace accident, that too must be reported — within fifteen days of the incident. The seven-day count does not include the day of the accident itself but does include weekends and rest days.
• Occupational diseases. Certain diagnoses, such as occupational asthma, hand-arm vibration syndrome and some occupational cancers, must be reported when a doctor confirms them in writing.
• Dangerous occurrences. These are specific "near-miss" events — for example the collapse or overturning of lifting equipment, an unintended release of a biological agent, or the failure of pressurised plant — where no one may have been injured but the potential was serious.

Is a RIDDOR report an admission of fault?

No. A RIDDOR report simply records that an accident of a defined type happened. It does not say who was to blame, and it is not a substitute for admitting liability in a civil claim. Employers and insurers routinely make RIDDOR reports while denying legal responsibility.

For a claimant, though, a RIDDOR entry is still valuable evidence. It shows the accident was serious enough to trigger a mandatory report, it is dated and contemporaneous, and it comes from the employer's own records rather than from the injured worker's recollection. Alongside the accident book, witness statements, photographs and medical notes, it strengthens the picture. Our guide to evidence for an accident at work claim explains how these documents fit together.

What if your employer did not make a RIDDOR report?

Failing to make a required RIDDOR report is a separate regulatory offence. It can be prosecuted by the HSE and, in some circumstances, taken into account when a court is asked to look at whether an employer took health and safety seriously. What it does not do is defeat a compensation claim: your civil claim depends on whether the employer breached its duty of care, not on whether it filed the correct paperwork afterwards.

If your accident was clearly serious and no report was made, it is worth acting quickly. Read our companion guide on what to do when your employer did not record the accident, and consider reporting the employer to the HSE yourself.

How can you find out whether a RIDDOR report was made?

There are three practical routes. The first is to ask the employer directly, in writing, whether a report was submitted and to request a copy. The second is a subject access request under UK GDPR, which entitles you to your personal data held by the employer — this often includes the accident book entry and any RIDDOR paperwork. The third is to contact the HSE, which holds the underlying reports and can confirm whether one exists for your case.

If you are working with a solicitor, they will usually raise these enquiries as part of the pre-action investigation.

Can you report the accident to the HSE yourself?

Yes. Workers, family members and members of the public can all report a concern to the HSE. Where an accident meets the RIDDOR threshold but the employer has not reported it, a worker report puts the incident on the HSE's radar and preserves the evidence trail.

Reporting to the HSE does not start a compensation claim — those are two separate processes — but it can trigger an investigation and gives you a paper record of what happened.

Does RIDDOR change your time limit for making a claim?

No. The three-year civil time limit under the Limitation Act 1980 applies whether or not a RIDDOR report was made. See our detailed guide to time limits for how the clock is calculated, including for industrial disease cases where the date of knowledge rule can shift the deadline.

The safe rule is simple: take legal advice as soon as you can after a serious accident, whether or not you know if RIDDOR paperwork exists. The report can be traced later — the clock cannot be stopped.