Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Overview

The HSE is the national regulator for workplace health and safety in Great Britain. It enforces a wide range of statutes including the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and sector-specific legislation (construction, chemicals, agriculture, offshore). It investigates serious workplace incidents, issues enforcement notices, and prosecutes employers and individuals.

What it handles

• Workplace accidents and ill-health reporting under RIDDOR
• Improvement and prohibition notices
• Prosecutions in serious cases
• Inspections of high-risk premises

Process

1. Step 1: Identify the responsible person

   Only the 'responsible person' — an employer, a self-employed person, or whoever is in control of the work premises — should submit a RIDDOR report; injured workers and members of the public should not report themselves and can instead raise a concern with HSE.

2. Step 2: Check what and when to report

   The responsible person must notify the enforcing authority without delay for deaths, specified injuries and dangerous occurrences, with the report received within 10 days of the incident; incidents causing over-seven-day worker incapacitation must be reported within 15 days, and occupational diseases must be reported as soon as the diagnosis is received.

3. Step 3: Submit the report online or by phone

   Reports are normally made using the relevant online RIDDOR form; fatal accidents and specified injuries to workers can also be reported by phone.

4. Step 4: Amend the report if circumstances change

   HSE's guidance explains how to amend a notification, for example when a previously reported injury later results in the person's death.

Official sources