Workplace accident record keeping in Great Britain

Record the accident promptly, keep the injured person's account intact, decide separately whether the event is reportable, protect the record and follow through on corrective action. That is the core of a workable workplace accident record system. An accident-book entry helps document an injury, while the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) impose additional recording and, for certain events, reporting duties. An internal record does not send a RIDDOR notification to the regulator.

This guide is for employers and people managing workplaces in England, Scotland and Wales. It explains how to run a record-keeping process across sites and cases. For a blank employee-injury entry, use the accident-book template. For the reporting decision, use Complys' existing RIDDOR versus accident book guide and check the HSE's current RIDDOR guidance. Northern Ireland uses separate reporting arrangements and should not be silently folded into this GB workflow.

Which records does the law require?

There are two overlapping routes. First, the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979, regulations 24–25, require covered employers to provide an accessible way for an employed person, or someone acting for them, to record the prescribed particulars of an accident causing personal injury. HSE's simple guidance summarises the familiar rule: if you have more than ten employees, you must keep an accident book, which may be HSE's book or your own record system. The regulation also has premises-specific wording. Check the detailed rule for your organisation rather than using headcount alone as a universal test.

Second, RIDDOR regulation 12 requires the responsible person to keep records of reportable injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences, and of work-related accidents that incapacitate a worker for routine work for more than three consecutive days (excluding the accident day). The latter may need recording even where it has not passed the over-seven-day threshold for reporting. HSE explains the distinction on its types of reportable incidents page.

In practice, organisations normally record minor injuries and near misses too. This is a sensible safety-management choice, but avoid presenting every near miss or minor event as automatically RIDDOR-reportable or subject to the same statutory record trigger. Some dangerous occurrences are reportable even without injury; use HSE's current definitions to decide. Keep a clear rule for staff to report all work-related events internally so the designated decision-maker can assess them.

The table is a triage aid, not a legal classification of a particular case. The HSE's record requirements and reportable categories are the decision sources.

Build one case record, with different layers

A useful system separates the first notice, employer findings, regulatory decision, and corrective action. Mixing them into one editable text box can erase the chronology when a later investigation changes the initial account.

1. First notice and immediate facts

Capture the injured person's name, address and occupation, event date/time and precise location, cause and nature of the injury as known, and the person giving notice if different. Those are the kind of particulars specified by Schedule 4 of the 1979 Regulations. Record the entry date and who made it. Do not wait for a final diagnosis before capturing the event; label uncertain details as such and add later updates with dates. Record immediate medical assistance and hazard isolation separately. Emergency care always takes priority over form completion.

For other incident types, the fields differ. A disease record needs the diagnosed condition and work exposure facts relevant to RIDDOR, while a dangerous occurrence may involve no injured person. Avoid forcing all events into an employee-injury form. HSE says that if you do not retain a copy of an online RIDDOR form, the record must include the date and method of reporting, event date/time/place, people involved and brief event or disease description.

2. Preserve the original account and investigate

Under regulation 25 of the 1979 social-security rules, the employer must take reasonable steps to investigate an accident of which it receives notice and record discrepancies it finds between the notice and its findings. Keep the worker's original account alongside a dated employer note. An example: the first entry says “slipped on a wet stair”. A later inspection finds an unmarked leak and a damaged tread. Add the evidence and conclusion; do not quietly replace the first statement with a retrospective story.

Use photographs, witness statements, equipment identifiers and maintenance records when relevant, with controlled access. The HSE's HSG245 investigation workbook organises investigation into gathering information, analysis, risk controls and an action plan. An investigation should focus on work design, equipment, supervision and controls, rather than stopping at “worker error”.

3. Make and revisit the RIDDOR decision

Assign a named person to check the current HSE categories, the work-relatedness test and the appropriate reporting authority. Record the category considered, facts relied upon, decision date, decision-maker and any next review date. If an injury later prevents normal work for longer than first expected, reassess. For an over-seven-day injury, HSE says the reporting period excludes the day of the accident, includes weekends/rest days, and the report should be made within 15 days of the accident.

If a report is required, submit through the official HSE RIDDOR reporting route or the correct enforcing authority route. Record the date, method, confirmation/reference and saved copy. A draft in your accident system is not proof of regulator submission. HSE also notes that its RIDDOR report is not sent to your insurer; separately consider insurance, client or contractual notice where applicable.

4. Close actions and learn

An incident record is most useful when it follows the control measure through to completion. For each finding, specify the change, responsible person, due date and how effectiveness will be checked. If a temporary barrier was installed, the permanent repair and verification should remain open. Review patterns by activity, location, equipment or time, using aggregated data where possible. Do not expose named health details simply to produce a dashboard.

How long should accident records be kept?

Two specific legal minimums matter here. RIDDOR regulation 12(2) requires entries in its record to be kept for at least three years from the date they were made. The covered accident-book arrangement under regulation 25(3) of the 1979 Regulations requires each such record to be preserved for at least three years from the entry date. These are minimums for the relevant records, not a universal deletion date for every accident file. Other legal, insurance, litigation or sector duties may require different handling. Define a documented schedule by record type, with a legal hold process where a claim or investigation is active.

Health information must not be kept indefinitely by default. The Information Commissioner's Office guidance on workers' health information says organisations should justify retention, document schedules, periodically review records and erase or anonymise information when no longer needed, subject to legal obligations. A paper folder and a cloud system need the same retention discipline.

Protect personal and health information

An injury record can contain health information, so use restricted access, an appropriate lawful basis and special-category condition, clear privacy information, secure storage and a disclosure process. The ICO's employment health guidance explains these duties. Practical safeguards include:

• giving staff a quick way to submit a first report without allowing them to read earlier workers' entries;
• limiting medical and witness details to case handlers who need them;
• using case IDs for trend reports and storing named evidence behind permissions;
• recording when a regulator, insurer or authorised representative receives an extract; and
• testing access, backup, retention and deletion arrangements, including paper books at remote sites.

Do not publish an accident log to a general site noticeboard. Safety representatives may have access rights to certain records, but personal health details still require careful handling. Set a review process for any disclosure request rather than giving unrestricted access to a full register.

Multi-site and contractor example

Suppose a subcontractor falls at a customer's site. The host supervisor makes the area safe and records the first facts; the worker's employer also needs notice and may have the reporting duty, depending on the circumstances. The two businesses should agree who preserves witnesses and photographs, who assesses RIDDOR and who communicates with the client. Avoid both assuming that the other submitted the report. Keep a cross-reference to the other party's case number instead of circulating a complete health record to everyone on the project. HSE's RIDDOR explanation identifies employers, certain self-employed people and people in control of premises as possible duty holders; the correct one depends on the event.

A useful closing check is: does the case show what happened, who was affected, what was done immediately, whether official reporting was needed, what was submitted, what changed and whether that change worked? If one of those answers is absent, the record may be formally present but operationally weak.

Where Complys fits

The Complys incident reporting software page describes an accident and incident register with corrective-action use. It can be a commercial route for organisations replacing disconnected paper or spreadsheets, subject to confirming the current implementation and terms. Do not say that Complys submits RIDDOR forms to HSE. The employer must still make and document the official reporting decision. If the implementation supports the workflow you need, compare access control, separate original and investigation records, evidence links, export, retention and action follow-up before adopting it.

Next step: review one recent case against the four-layer process above, correct any missing RIDDOR decision or outstanding action, and use the blank accident-book entry for future injuries. Check official HSE sources on the publication day for any time-sensitive threshold or reporting procedure.

Source and claim register — checked 5 October 2026