Sample policy · RIDDOR

RIDDOR reporting policy template

Statutory anchor: Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1471), made under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. This policy also engages Regulation 12 (safe care and treatment) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2936) and the CQC notification duties under the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 where the same event is also notifiable to CQC, but its primary law is RIDDOR 2013. · primary source

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Verivius pack version v1, 2026-06-10

1. What the regulation says

The verbatim duties below are drawn from the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013, the primary law this policy is anchored to. Its full text is at the primary source URL below.

Where any person at work, as a result of a work-related accident, suffers [a specified injury listed in (a)-(h)], the responsible person must follow the reporting procedure.

Where any person at work is incapacitated for routine work for more than seven consecutive days (excluding the day of the accident) because of an injury resulting from an accident arising out of or in connection with that work, the responsible person must send a report to the relevant enforcing authority in an approved manner as soon as practicable and in any event within 15 days of the accident.

Where any person not at work, as a result of a work-related accident, suffers (a) an injury, and that person is taken from the site of the accident to a hospital for treatment in respect of that injury; or (b) a specified injury on hospital premises, the responsible person must follow the reporting procedure, subject to regulations 14 and 15.

Where any person dies as a result of a work-related accident, the responsible person must follow the reporting procedure.

Where an employee has suffered an injury reportable under regulation 4 which is a cause of his death within one year of the date of the accident, the employer must notify the relevant enforcing authority of the death in an approved manner without delay, whether or not the injury has been reported under regulation 4.

An entry in the record referred to in paragraph (1) must be kept for at least three years from the date on which it was made.

The responsible person must notify the relevant enforcing authority of the reportable incident by the quickest practicable means without delay, and send a report of that incident in an approved manner to the relevant enforcing authority within 10 days of the incident.

The full text of the regulation is at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/1471/contents. Where this policy and the regulation diverge, the regulation wins.

2. Plain-English summary

RIDDOR creates a duty to report certain work-related events to the relevant enforcing authority (the Health and Safety Executive for most providers; specific bodies for offshore and rail). The reportable categories are deaths from a work-related accident (RIDDOR Regulation 6), specified non-fatal injuries to workers (RIDDOR Regulation 4), non-fatal injuries to non-workers including patients that result in hospital treatment from a work-related accident (RIDDOR Regulation 5), dangerous occurrences listed in Schedule 2 (RIDDOR Regulation 7), occupational diseases (RIDDOR Regulation 8), and exposures to carcinogens, mutagens and biological agents (RIDDOR Regulation 9). The "work-related" qualifier is load-bearing: a patient injury caused by patient frailty alone is not RIDDOR-reportable; a patient injury caused by a slippery floor, faulty equipment, or staff handling error is. Reports for fatalities and specified injuries must be made by the quickest practicable means without delay; the formal report follows within 10 days. The responsible person must also keep an internal record for at least 3 years.

3. Scope

This policy applies to all employees, contractors, agency workers, and visitors at . It covers work-related accidents involving workers and non-workers (patients, visitors, members of the public), occupational diseases, dangerous occurrences listed in RIDDOR Schedule 2, and exposures to carcinogens, mutagens, or biological agents. It covers every site, every patient-handling activity, every premises-and-equipment-related risk, and the cross-link from RIDDOR-reportable events to the platform's incident-reporting register.

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4. Roles and responsibilities

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5. Procedure

The RIDDOR procedure operationalises the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.

  1. Recognise and report. When an accident or dangerous occurrence happens, the staff member ensures the immediate safety of any person involved, then raises the event to the Health and Safety Lead the same shift. Where the event is fatal or involves a specified injury, the Health and Safety Lead is notified immediately by phone.
  2. Log the event in the incident register. Every reportable event is also logged in the platform's incident reporting register so the audit trail runs through one place.
  3. Trigger assessment. The Health and Safety Lead applies the RIDDOR trigger map: is this a death (Reg 6), a specified injury to a worker (Reg 4), an over-7-day incapacity injury to a worker (Reg 7(a)), a non-worker injury from a work-related accident requiring hospital treatment (Reg 5), a dangerous occurrence in Schedule 2 (Reg 7), an occupational disease (Reg 8), or a carcinogen/mutagen/biological agent exposure (Reg 9). The "work-related" qualifier is checked first: patient injury caused by patient frailty alone is not RIDDOR; patient injury caused by slippery floor, faulty equipment, or staff handling error is.
  4. Immediate notification (where applicable). Fatalities, specified injuries, and dangerous occurrences must be notified to HSE by the quickest practicable means without delay (typically the HSE phone line for fatalities; HSE online form for the rest within the immediate window).
  5. Formal report. The formal report follows within 10 days of the incident for the categories notifiable under Reg 4 (worker specified injury), Reg 5 (non-worker injury), Reg 6 (death), and Reg 7 (dangerous occurrence). Within 15 days for the over-7-day worker incapacity reports under Reg 4. Within 10 days for occupational diseases under Reg 8.
  6. Use the HSE online portal. Reports are submitted through the HSE online reporting form (riddor.hse.gov.uk) or by phone for fatal and specified-injury events. The HSE reference number is captured against the platform's incident record.
  7. Cross-link to other obligations. RIDDOR-reportable events affecting service users may also meet a CQC statutory notification trigger under the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. The Health and Safety Lead spawns the CQC notification where applicable.
  8. Cross-link to duty of candour. RIDDOR-reportable events affecting service users may also trigger the statutory duty of candour. A notifiable safety incident is a specific legal term under Regulation 20, and the threshold differs by provider type, so the service must apply the correct Regulation 20 definition for its provider type before opening a duty-of-candour record per the Reg 20 policy.
  9. Investigation and learning. Every RIDDOR-reportable event is investigated through the standard incident-investigation lifecycle. The investigation surfaces the work-related root cause, which produces improvement actions.
  10. Pattern review. The aggregate RIDDOR-reportable pattern is reviewed quarterly at the health and safety committee (or the clinical governance committee in providers without a separate H&S committee). HSE may inspect the RIDDOR records during a routine visit; the pattern review is the visible evidence that the team is reading its own data.

6. Training requirement

Training records held in the tenant's training matrix register.

7. Audit

Compliance with this policy is monitored by the Health and Safety Lead:

Audit findings recorded in the tenant's audit register; actions logged in the improvement-actions register.

8. Record-keeping

RIDDOR records are held for a minimum of 3 years from the date the entry was made per RIDDOR Reg 12(2). Most providers retain RIDDOR records for the same 8-year minimum as the related incident record under the NHS Code of Practice on Records Management. HSE may inspect the records at any reasonable time within the retention period.

The platform's incident record (which cross-links to the RIDDOR report) is held for the standard incident-retention period per the incident reporting policy.

Verivius preserves the per-record audit trail indefinitely while the workspace is active.

9. Related policies in this pack

10. Sources and further reading

This template is based on CQC's guidance for providers and managers, the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, and other topic-specific legislation and guidance listed below. It is a starting point for adaptation, not a substitute for legal, clinical, HR, safeguarding or specialist professional advice.

11. When to seek further advice

Seek specialist advice where the issue involves serious harm, safeguarding, deprivation of liberty, restraint, children, professional misconduct, controlled drugs, radiation, termination of pregnancy, infection outbreak, water safety, employment dismissal, DBS barring referral, or regulatory enforcement.

12. Document control

Version Date Author Changes
v1 2026-05-19 Verivius (sample) Initial sample template.
v1.1 2026-06-01 Verivius (sample) Filled out Sections 3 to 8 with concrete content. Section 4 names the Health and Safety Lead role with the RIDDOR-trigger and HSE filing responsibilities. Section 5 expanded to a 10-step procedure covering recognise, log, trigger assessment, immediate notification for fatalities and specified injuries, formal report, HSE portal use, cross-link to CQC notification, cross-link to duty of candour, investigation, pattern review. Section 6 names training tiers. Section 7 names the audit cadence. Section 8 references the RIDDOR Reg 12(2) 3-year minimum plus NHS Code of Practice on Records Management.
v1 (2026-06-10) 2026-06-10 Verivius (sample) Re-conformed to the current Verivius policy standard, preserving the original content. Disclaimer and footer updated to the current wording; header block, Policy owner / Applies to line, verbatim RIDDOR 2013 blockquotes, plain-English summary, Sources and further reading, and When to seek further advice added. Duty-of-candour cross-link corrected to apply the correct Regulation 20 definition for the provider type rather than a universal moderate-harm threshold.

This sample policy template was issued by Verivius. It is a template, not a substitute for legal advice or the tenant's own policy-development process. Where this template and live law or regulator guidance diverge, the live source wins.

What good looks like here

Written from an ex-CQC inspector's chair, but the point is safe, well-led care your team can stand behind. Each row shows what strong evidence looks like, what thin evidence looks like, and where the expectation comes from.

The load-bearing judgement in this policy is the work-related qualifier: whether a patient's injury came from their own frailty or from a slippery floor, a faulty hoist or a staff handling error. Get that call wrong and the hazard that actually caused the harm stays live for the next person moved with the same technique or walking the same corridor. That is why the reasoning has to be recorded even when no report is filed, because the no-report decisions are exactly where a genuine premises or equipment fault gets quietly reclassified as unavoidable frailty and disappears from view. Reading the aggregate pattern before the Health and Safety Executive does is what turns three separate falls in the same bay into one fixable cause. The person who benefits is not the inspector but the next patient, whose injury never happens because the floor was fixed.

  1. The 'work-related' qualifier is applied and the reasoning is recorded both ways, whether a report went in or a no-report call was made, so a patient fall caused by a slippery floor, faulty equipment or a staff handling error is tested as reportable rather than written off as frailty alone, and the hazard is not left live for the next person.

    Strong evidence: The per-incident trigger sign-off on each logged incident: the report filed where one was due, or the no-report-needed reasoning attached where the work-related qualifier was not met (Audit; Procedure step 3).

    Weak evidence: Only the incidents that were reported carry a trigger record. Falls written off as frailty, or as unwitnessed, carry a bare 'not RIDDOR' tick with no line on why a slippery floor, a faulty hoist or a handling technique was ruled out, so nobody can tell whether the work-related qualifier was ever actually tested. The sharpest version is a patient taken to hospital after a fall whose record shows no one asked whether a work-related cause applied at all.

    Our recommended baseline. Not a legal or regulatory requirement, but a sensible standard we suggest where the rules leave the detail to you. Adapt it to your service.

  2. The report route matches the category and its timing, so a specified injury or a fatality is notified by the quickest practicable means without delay rather than left to a routine report, and the over-seven-day worker incapacity is not missed.

    Strong evidence: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reference number captured against the incident record, the initial notification made without delay, and the formal report within 10 days for deaths, specified injuries and dangerous occurrences or within 15 days for the over-seven-day incapacity (Section 1 verbatim duties; Procedure steps 4, 5).

    Weak evidence: A Health and Safety Executive reference number sits on the record but nothing shows when the initial notification went in, so a fatality or specified injury that should have been notified by the quickest practicable means without delay cannot be told apart from one that quietly waited for the routine report. The phone-first route for fatal and specified-injury events leaves no trace of its own, and over-seven-day worker incapacity injuries often carry no filing date at all.

    A legal duty. This comes from legislation that applies to your service, so meeting it is not optional. The exact provision is cited beneath the badge.

    Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1471), reg 4(1) (notification by quickest practicable means without delay, report within 10 days), reg 4(2) (over-seven-day incapacity, report within 15 days), reg 5 (non-workers taken to hospital), reg 6 (work-related deaths), reg 7 (dangerous occurrences)

  3. Every reportable event runs through the one incident register, not a parallel HSE-only file, so the next person to pick the event up sees one history rather than a forked trail.

    Strong evidence: The incident-register entry cross-linked to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) report and its HSE reference number (Procedure steps 2, 6).

    Weak evidence: The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) reports live in a separate spreadsheet or in the Health and Safety Lead's inbox, and the matching incident-register entry either does not exist or carries no Health and Safety Executive reference number, so the two lists cannot be reconciled and the audit trail has quietly forked. The tell is a register entry closed as a local fall on the same date as an unlinked report to the enforcing authority.

    Our recommended baseline. Not a legal or regulatory requirement, but a sensible standard we suggest where the rules leave the detail to you. Adapt it to your service.

  4. A RIDDOR event affecting a service user still raises its other duties separately: the report to the Health and Safety Executive does not discharge the CQC statutory notification, and neither of them discharges the Regulation 20 duty of candour, which is owed to the person and is not a notification. The candour threshold is the Regulation 20 definition of a notifiable safety incident for this provider type, Regulation 20(8) for a health service body and Regulation 20(9) for any other registered person, not a blanket moderate-harm trigger.

    Strong evidence: The CQC statutory notification made under the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 where a service user is affected, recorded separately from the Health and Safety Executive report, and the duty-of-candour record opened only where the correct Regulation 20 threshold for the provider type is met (Procedure steps 7, 8).

    Weak evidence: The report to the Health and Safety Executive is filed and the record closed with nothing to show whether a CQC statutory notification or a Regulation 20 duty-of-candour check was even considered, sometimes with the Health and Safety Executive reference number treated as though it discharged both. A related weak sign is a candour record opened on a blanket moderate-harm trigger, with no evidence that the Regulation 20 definition of a notifiable safety incident for this provider type was applied first.

    A legal duty. This comes from legislation that applies to your service, so meeting it is not optional. The exact provision is cited beneath the badge.

    Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, regs 16 to 18 (statutory notifications of death and other incidents); Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, reg 20(8) and reg 20(9) (notifiable safety incident, defined differently for health service bodies and for other registered persons)

  5. The RIDDOR pattern is read by the team that generates it, so three falls in the same bay surface as one fixable cause and get escalated as a system-level risk, rather than staying buried in individual reports.

    Strong evidence: The quarterly RIDDOR-pattern review over the trailing 12 months by category, site and activity at the health and safety committee (Audit; Procedure step 10).

    Weak evidence: Individual Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) reports exist but there is no aggregated view, so the review is really a count of reports tabled at a meeting, with no breakdown by category, site or activity and no repeat cause escalated as a system-level risk. A recurring slippery-floor or hoist fault stays invisible until the Health and Safety Executive joins the dots during a routine visit.

    Our recommended baseline. Not a legal or regulatory requirement, but a sensible standard we suggest where the rules leave the detail to you. Adapt it to your service.

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Last verified 20 July 2026

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Last reviewed 10 June 2026