Reforming RIDDOR

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 require employers and others to report and keep records of work related accidents causing death or certain serious injuries, certain occupational diseases, and certain dangerous occurrences / near misses.

As part of the legislation the HSE is required to carry out a review and produce a report within five years of the implementation of the legislation and every five years after that. The first post implementation review has now been published and is available to downloaded from http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/1471/resources

The review has found that in certain sectors, especially those who interact predominantly with non-workers, there has been an over reporting of injuries to non-workers. Regulation 5 states that “Where any person not at work, as a result of a work-related accident, suffers an injury, and that person is taken from the site of the accident to a hospital for treatment in respect of that injury; or a specified injury on hospital premises, the responsible person must follow the reporting procedure”, which makes a broad scope of incidents potentially reportable.

The report proposes aligning the reporting requirements for non-workers more closely with the requirements for workers (and those in hospital), where reports are required for specified injuries, this would provide duty holders with a greater degree of clarity about when the legal reporting requirements are intended to apply.

With the HSE’s increasing focus on ill health the report also recommends increasing the list of occupational diseases that are required to be reported. Of particular interest are illness including pneumoconiosis (e.g. silicosis), extrinsic allergic alveolitis, decompression illness, pulmonary barotrauma and poisoning due to certain chemical exposures.

Finally, the report also recommends reviewing the existing guidance on the regulations with a view to simplifying the guidance and clarifying what needs to be reported.