Council issues Simple Caution to business for failing to report a work-related incident

Date published: 27th February 2023

North Norfolk District Council has issued a Simple Caution to a business after it failed to follow the requirements of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR).

Accidents and incidents that occur at work or in connection with work activities are investigated by either the Council's Public Protection team or the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to prevent their recurrence.

RIDDOR includes requirements to report an incident to the enforcing authority by the quickest practicable means.

Incidents that should be reported include:

• work-related accidents
• accidents that result in specified injury that is reportable, e.g. Fractures, severe burns, loss of consciousness, crush injuries etc
• non-fatal accidents requiring hospital treatment to non-workers
• dangerous occurrences
• gas incidents
• accidents resulting in the death of any person
• certain infectious diseases
• accidents when an employee is unable to work for seven consecutive days

In accordance with RIDDOR, the responsible person within the business must notify the enforcing authority as soon as possible after the incident.

Ian Hogg, Public Protection Team Leader, North Norfolk District Council, said:

“Reporting incidents without delay is vitally important to ensure that the health and safety enforcement authority can swiftly investigate what has happened.

“The enforcing authority will take a dim view if the requirements of RIDDOR are not followed and if matters only come to light sometime after the event.

“In this case, the significant delay between when the incident happened and when the enforcing authority became aware of it prevented officers from properly assessing the scene.

“On this occasion, the decision was taken to deal with the failure to report by issuing a simple caution; however, under the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008, if the matter had been referred to court, an unlimited fine could have been imposed.”

Every business should familiarise itself with the requirements and reporting procedures of RIDDOR. You can find out more here - www.hse.gov.uk/riddor

If you are in any doubt about whether an incident needs to be reported, we would like to encourage you to check with your health and safety enforcing authority, which could be North Norfolk District Council.

You can find out more about reporting an accident here - www.north-norfolk.gov.uk/tasks/business-and-trade/report-an-accident