RIDDOR Statistics UK: 2026 Facts & Data

RIDDOR Statistics UK

RIDDOR is the legal reporting system for certain work-related injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences in Great Britain. Its statistics describe defined reportable events, rather than every injury or illness experienced by a worker.

This guide combines the latest 2024/25 non-fatal employee injury figures with the 2025/26 provisional fatal-injury release. It also explains key reporting rules; Northern Ireland has separate regulations.

Reviewed 15 October 2026. HSE statistics cover Great Britain. Non-fatal injury and ill-health figures are for 2024/25 or the stated multi-year average; fatal figures are 2025/26 provisional. Cost estimates refer to 2023/24.

Key facts & figures (overview)

59,219 non-fatal employee injuries reported under RIDDOR in 2024/25.
209 per 100,000 employees: the RIDDOR non-fatal injury rate in 2024/25.
126 worker deaths in 2025/26, provisional.
104 public deaths in the 2025/26 provisional series, subject to its stated exclusions.
30% of RIDDOR non-fatal employee injuries involved same-level slips, trips or falls in 2024/25.
17% involved handling, lifting or carrying in 2024/25.
680,000 workers reported an injury of any severity in the separate 2024/25 LFS estimate.
15 days from the accident: the usual reporting deadline for an over-seven-day injury.
More than three days of incapacity triggers injury recording, even where reporting is not required.
Three years is the minimum retention period from the date a required RIDDOR record entry is made.

What is RIDDOR?

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 require a responsible person to notify the relevant enforcing authority when defined conditions are met. This enables investigation and analysis of workplace risks.

RIDDOR does not replace first aid, emergency arrangements, internal incident investigation or other legal reporting duties. Reporting an incident is not an admission of liability.

What must be reported under RIDDOR?

Fatal accidents

Deaths resulting from work-related accidents are generally reportable, including a death within one year of a reportable injury. Suicides are excluded. HSE also identifies an exception for a self-employed person dying on premises where they were the sole owner or occupier.

Specified injuries to workers

These include fractures other than fingers, thumbs or toes; amputations; and certain serious eye, crush, burn, scalping, unconsciousness and enclosed-space injuries. Check the precise legal definitions; time off work is not the test for this category.

Over-seven-day injuries

Report when a work-related accident leaves an employee or self-employed person unable to do their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days. Exclude the accident day, but count weekends and rest days.

Injuries to non-workers

A work-related accident to someone not at work is generally reportable if it causes injury and they are taken directly to hospital for treatment. Diagnostic tests alone do not count as treatment. Contractors doing work are not automatically non-workers, and special rules apply to accidents at hospitals.

Occupational diseases

Certain diagnosed occupational conditions are reportable when the required work or exposure criteria are met. These include specified hand and arm conditions, dermatitis, asthma and vibration syndrome, plus occupational cancers and diseases linked to biological agents.

Dangerous occurrences

Only the events defined in Schedule 2 are reportable dangerous occurrences. They may need reporting even without an injury; not every near miss meets the definition.

What RIDDOR does not cover

Minor injuries below the criteria, ordinary community infections and most road-traffic accidents are outside the system. Road incidents have exceptions, including some loading, unloading and road-work activities. Check the relevant exclusions instead of assuming that every event at work is reportable.

Who is responsible for reporting?

The responsible person is usually the employer for employees, or the person controlling premises for certain incidents involving self-employed people or members of the public. A self-employed person normally reports a qualifying non-fatal accident on their own premises or in domestic premises.

Agency and host businesses should establish the duty from the actual employment relationship. An injured employee should inform their employer; if concerned about failure to report, they can raise a concern with HSE rather than submitting a report as the responsible person.

RIDDOR reporting timescales

Reportable deaths, specified injuries and dangerous occurrences: notify without delay and ensure the report is received within 10 days.
Over-seven-day injuries: report within 15 days of the accident. Where incapacity becomes apparent later, follow HSE’s guidance and report promptly once the criterion is met.
Reportable occupational disease: report when the qualifying diagnosis and work-related conditions are established.
Over-three-day incapacity: keep a record; this threshold alone does not require a report.
Required records: retain each entry for at least three years after it is made.

Use the appropriate online form. Fatal accidents and specified injuries can alternatively be reported by telephone. HSE is not an emergency service.

The latest RIDDOR figures: injury and fatality series

The latest non-fatal series records 59,219 employee injuries in 2024/25, or 209 per 100,000 employees. The later fatal release records 126 worker deaths and 104 deaths to members of the public in 2025/26, provisional.

These figures must retain their own reference years. The 2025/26 fatal publication does not turn the 2024/25 non-fatal figures into 2025/26 estimates.

Fatal injuries reported under RIDDOR

By industry

The 2025/26 provisional worker totals include construction 25, agriculture/forestry/fishing 22, manufacturing 18 and transportation/storage 15.

By accident kind, 2025/26 provisional

Falls from height caused 31 deaths; moving vehicles 24; moving objects 21; collapse or overturning 18; moving machinery 10.

By worker profile

Men accounted for 117 deaths, or 93%. Workers aged 60 and over accounted for 40, or 32%. Forty of the 126 workers were self-employed.

Members of the public

The public series records 104 deaths, compared with a revised 96 in 2024/25. It excludes patient and service-user deaths in healthcare and adult social care premises in England where the Care Quality Commission is the lead enforcement body.

Non-fatal injuries reported under RIDDOR

The 59,219 figure concerns employees and includes specified injuries and over-seven-day injuries reported by employers. It is not a count of every worker injured.

The broader LFS estimated 680,000 workers with a workplace injury in 2024/25: 556,000 with up to seven days’ absence and 124,000 with over seven days. Absence alone cannot determine whether a particular injury was reportable, because specified injuries have separate criteria.

The causes of RIDDOR-reported injuries

These percentages apply to RIDDOR non-fatal employee injuries in Great Britain in 2024/25:

Accident kind	Share of RIDDOR non-fatal employee injuries
Same-level slips, trips and falls	30%
Handling, lifting or carrying	17%
Struck by a moving object	10%
Acts of violence	10%
Falls from height	8%

Moving vehicles are a separate accident category from moving objects. Rounded percentages should not be used to generate supposedly exact injury counts.

The RIDDOR reporting gap: what the numbers don’t show

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates injuries of all severities, including cases that do not meet the RIDDOR reporting criteria. RIDDOR covers defined reportable incidents and, in the non-fatal employee series, is also affected by under-reporting. These sources measure different populations; subtracting one total from the other does not measure breaches of reporting law.

HSE estimates that around half of non-fatal employee injuries meeting RIDDOR criteria are reported. This is an estimate of reporting completeness, not permission to double the published count to produce an exact total.

RIDDOR by industry

The 2025 sector reports record 3,726 construction employee injuries and 7,698 transportation and storage employee injuries under RIDDOR in 2024/25. Their coverage is different from the LFS sector estimates.

Comparisons should consider workforce size, activities and differences in reporting. A larger count does not by itself show that an individual worker faces a higher risk.

Dangerous occurrences and occupational diseases

Dangerous occurrences and occupational diseases are separate reporting categories, not additions to the non-fatal employee injury count. Their definitions include specific event, diagnosis and exposure conditions.

Healthcare-associated occupational infection is not automatically excluded: disease linked to occupational exposure to a biological agent may be reportable. Conversely, a diagnosis alone does not make every case reportable without the required work connection.

Penalties for failing to report under RIDDOR

Failure to comply with RIDDOR can be a criminal offence. Enforcement and any penalty depend on the facts, offence and court; a single “standard fine” is not a reliable guide.

Have a clear reporting process, keep records of decisions and obtain competent advice where an incident’s classification is uncertain.

Long-term trends in RIDDOR data

Reporting rules, definitions and coverage have changed over time. Long-run RIDDOR comparisons therefore need the notes accompanying HSE’s historical tables.

HSE’s latest fatal analysis describes a long-term decline in the rate of fatal injury, with that decline slowing in recent years. The latest non-fatal LFS rates are similar to the pre-pandemic 2018/19 level.

What RIDDOR data is used for

Regulators use reports to identify incidents requiring attention and to understand patterns of harm. Employers can also use incident information to review risk controls and training.

Use consistent definitions, population and dates when quoting statistics. A report identifies an event within a legal reporting system; it does not by itself establish the outcome of an investigation.

Written by workplace safety experts

This guide was produced by the team at Manual Handling Training, a UK provider of RoSPA-approved and CPD-accredited online health and safety training. Manual handling is consistently one of the two most common causes of RIDDOR-reported non-fatal workplace injuries — accounting for 17% of employer-reported non-fatal employee injuries in 2024/25. Our training is used by businesses across every sector to reduce manual handling risk, meet their RIDDOR reporting obligations, and protect their workforces from the most common preventable injuries in the UK workplace.

Sources & references

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Mark McShane

Health & Safety Training Specialist, Online CPD Academy

Mark writes about workplace health & safety, manual handling and accredited online training for Manual Handling Training, part of Online CPD Academy.