RIDDOR Statistics UK: 2026 Facts, Data & Key Insights

RIDDOR Statistics UK

Every year, tens of thousands of workplace incidents are reported to the Health and Safety Executive under RIDDOR — the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. The data these reports generate forms the backbone of the UK's official workplace safety statistics, shapes enforcement priorities, and provides the evidence base for health and safety policy across government and industry.

Yet RIDDOR statistics are widely misunderstood, and the gap between reported and actual injuries is one of the most significant underappreciated facts in UK workplace safety. The 59,219 injuries reported by employers in 2024/25 represents a fraction of the true injury picture — while the data that is reported provides a uniquely detailed and legally verified record of the most serious workplace incidents across Great Britain.

This guide brings together the latest RIDDOR statistics alongside a clear explanation of what RIDDOR covers, what it requires, and what the data does and does not tell us about the state of workplace safety in the UK.

Key Facts & Figures (Overview)

• 59,219 non-fatal injuries to employees were reported by employers under RIDDOR in 2024/25 — the second-lowest figure on record.
• 124 workers were killed in work-related accidents reported under RIDDOR in 2024/25, down from 138 the previous year.
• 92 members of the public were killed in work-related incidents in 2024/25, an increase of 5 on the previous year.
• The RIDDOR non-fatal injury rate for employees is 209 per 100,000 employees in 2024/25 — a long-term downward trend from around 300+ per 100,000 a decade ago.
• 680,000 workers self-reported sustaining a non-fatal workplace injury in 2024/25 via the Labour Force Survey — more than 11 times the RIDDOR-reported figure, reflecting the large volume of less severe injuries that fall below the RIDDOR reporting threshold.
• The HSE estimates that only around half of RIDDOR-qualifying non-fatal injuries are actually reported by employers — meaning the true number of reportable incidents is approximately double the reported figure.
• Slips, trips and falls on the same level (30%) and manual handling (17%) are the two most common causes of RIDDOR-reported non-fatal injuries, together accounting for nearly half of all employer-reported incidents.
• 4.4 million working days were lost to non-fatal injuries in 2024/25, according to Labour Force Survey estimates.
• Failure to report a RIDDOR-qualifying incident is a criminal offence carrying a potential unlimited fine and up to 2 years' imprisonment.
• The HSE carried out over 13,200 workplace inspections in 2024/25 — a 47% increase — and achieved a 94% conviction rate in prosecutions it brought.

What Is RIDDOR?

RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. The current version, RIDDOR 2013, came into force on 1 October 2013, replacing the previous RIDDOR 1995 regulations. It is made under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and applies to all work activities in Great Britain — it does not cover Northern Ireland, which operates under separate, equivalent regulations.

RIDDOR imposes a legal duty on employers, self-employed persons, and those in control of work premises to report and record certain types of workplace incidents to the HSE or the relevant enforcing authority. It is not a general accident reporting system — it applies specifically to incidents that meet defined criteria of severity.

The four primary purposes of RIDDOR are:

Risk identification: The data RIDDOR generates allows the HSE and local authorities to identify where and how risks arise across industries, occupations, and regions.

Investigation: RIDDOR reports alert enforcing authorities to serious incidents and enable them to investigate whether employers have met their legal duties — and to take enforcement action where they have not.

Targeting: Patterns in RIDDOR data inform the HSE's targeted inspection and enforcement programmes, directing resource toward sectors and activities where the risk is greatest.

Policy: Aggregate RIDDOR data is used to develop, review, and improve health and safety legislation, guidance, and prevention campaigns at national level.

RIDDOR sits alongside the Labour Force Survey (LFS) as one of the two main data sources for the HSE's annual workplace safety statistics. The LFS captures the full breadth of workplace injuries through self-report, regardless of severity. RIDDOR provides a legally verified record of the most serious incidents, with richer detail about the nature, location, and cause of each incident.

What Must Be Reported Under RIDDOR?

RIDDOR requires the reporting of incidents that fall into the following categories:

Fatal accidents

All work-related deaths must be reported, whether they involve workers or members of the public. If someone is injured in a work-related accident and dies within one year of that accident, the death must also be reported even if RIDDOR compliance was met at the time of the original incident. Suicides are excluded from RIDDOR reporting, as are deaths from natural causes unless there is a clear causal link to a work-related accident.

Specified injuries to workers

Regulation 4 of RIDDOR defines a category of specified injuries — serious injuries that must be reported regardless of how long the worker is absent. These include:

• Fractures (other than to fingers, thumbs, and toes)
• Amputation of an arm, hand, finger, thumb, leg, foot, or toe
• Any injury likely to lead to permanent loss or reduction of sight in one or both eyes
• Any crush injury to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs in the chest or abdomen
• Any burn injury covering more than 10% of the body, or damaging the eyes, respiratory system, or vital organs
• Scalping injuries requiring hospital treatment
• Any injury arising from working in an enclosed space leading to hypothermia, heat-induced illness, or requiring resuscitation or more than 24 hours' hospital admission
• Loss of consciousness caused by a head injury or asphyxiation

Over-seven-day injuries

Any accident that results in a worker being away from work, or unable to perform their normal duties, for more than 7 consecutive days — not including the day of the accident — must be reported. The count includes weekends and rest days. Where the severity of the injury does not become apparent until after the accident, reporting is required once the 7-day threshold has been met.

Injuries causing absence of 3 to 7 days are not required to be reported to the HSE, but must be recorded in the employer's accident book or equivalent record.

Injuries to non-workers

If a member of the public, visitor, contractor, or customer is injured as a result of a work-related accident and is taken directly to hospital for treatment, this must be reported. Diagnostic tests and examinations do not count as treatment for this purpose — a report is only required where the person actually receives treatment.

Occupational diseases

Employers must report certain occupational diseases when a doctor confirms a diagnosis and there is a causal link to the person's current or recent work. Reportable diseases under RIDDOR Regulations 8 and 9 include:

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from use of vibrating or percussive tools
• Cramp in the hand or forearm from prolonged repetitive movement
• Occupational dermatitis from skin exposure to sensitisers or irritants
• Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) from regular use of vibrating tools or materials
• Occupational asthma from exposure to respiratory sensitisers
• Tendonitis or tenosynovitis in the hand or forearm from frequent repetitive movements
• Any disease or condition attributed to occupational exposure to a biological agent

Occupational diseases must be reported without delay once a written diagnosis is received. The reporting obligation is triggered by the written diagnosis — an employer cannot be required to report a disease they were not notified of in writing.

Dangerous occurrences

Certain events must be reported even if no one was injured, because they had the potential to cause death or serious injury. These include:

• The collapse, overturning, or failure of any load-bearing part of lifting equipment
• Any explosion or fire caused by an electrical short circuit or overload, where it causes a significant risk of death or results in stoppage of plant for more than 24 hours
• Plant or equipment unintentionally coming into contact with overhead power lines
• Unintentional explosions, ignition of explosives, or misfires
• Accidental release of any substance that may cause a reportable injury, damage to health, or significant damage to property
• A scaffold collapse
• Contact with radiation from a radioactive source

Additional dangerous occurrences specific to mines, quarries, offshore installations, and railways are listed in Schedule 2 of RIDDOR.

What RIDDOR does not cover

RIDDOR does not require reporting of:

• Road traffic accidents — except where the road is itself the workplace (e.g., highway maintenance work)
• Deaths from natural causes (such as heart attacks) unless there is a direct causal link to a work-related accident
• Suicides
• Fatal diseases (these are tracked through separate mortality data)
• Healthcare-associated infections in clinical settings
• Injuries arising directly from medical procedures performed by registered medical or dental practitioners

Who Is Responsible for Reporting?

RIDDOR places the reporting duty on the responsible person — defined as employers, self-employed persons, and those in control of work premises. The distinction matters:

• Employers must report work-related deaths and specified injuries to their own employees, over-seven-day injuries, and occupational diseases diagnosed in their employees.
• Those in control of premises must report work-related deaths and injuries to non-workers (members of the public, visitors, contractors) on their premises, and dangerous occurrences at their premises.
• Self-employed persons must report incidents involving themselves, but only where they are working on premises that are not their own sole-owner or sole-occupier property. A sole trader working alone at their own home or workshop is not required to report their own injury.

An employee who is injured does not report under RIDDOR — they report to their employer or supervisor, who then has the reporting obligation. An employee may report directly to the HSE if they believe their employer has failed to report a qualifying incident.

RIDDOR Reporting Timescales

RIDDOR specifies different deadlines depending on the type of incident:

Deaths and specified injuries: Must be reported without delay. The HSE expects notification by the quickest practicable means, and a full written report submitted within 10 days of the incident. Fatal and specified injuries may additionally be reported by telephone to the HSE's Incident Contact Centre (0345 300 9923, Monday to Friday, 8:30am–5pm), but this does not replace the requirement for a written report.

Over-seven-day injuries: Must be reported within 15 days of the accident. Note that this is 15 days from the date of the accident, not from the point at which the seven-day threshold is reached — meaning by the time it is confirmed that the injury qualifies as an over-seven-day case, employers may have as few as 8 days remaining to submit the report.

Occupational diseases: Must be reported without delay following a written diagnosis. Reports should be made as soon as the written diagnosis is received.

Dangerous occurrences: Must be reported without delay, with a full report submitted within 10 days.

All reports should be submitted online at the HSE's RIDDOR reporting portal. Telephone reporting is available only for fatalities and specified injuries. Records of all RIDDOR reports must be retained for at least three years from the date of the incident.

The Latest RIDDOR Figures: 2024/25

The HSE publishes annual statistics drawing on RIDDOR data. The latest figures cover the period April 2024 to March 2025:

• 124 worker fatalities reported under RIDDOR — down from 138 in 2023/24 and broadly in line with pre-pandemic levels
• 92 deaths of members of the public in work-related incidents — up from 87 in 2023/24
• 59,219 non-fatal injuries to employees reported by employers — down from 61,663 the previous year, and the second-lowest figure on record
• The non-fatal employer-reported injury rate of 209 per 100,000 employees continues a long-term downward trend

Fatal Injuries Reported Under RIDDOR

The 124 worker fatalities in 2024/25 represent the official RIDDOR record of deaths from work-related accidents in Great Britain for that year. Key breakdowns include:

By industry:

• Construction: 35 deaths — the highest of any sector, despite employing just 6% of the workforce
• Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 23 deaths
• Transportation and storage: 15 deaths
• Manufacturing: 11 deaths
• These four sectors together account for approximately 68% of all worker fatalities

By accident kind (five-year average, 2020/21–2024/25):

• Falls from height: the single most common cause, responsible for over a quarter of all worker deaths annually
• Struck by a moving object: second most common fatal accident kind, averaging approximately 21 deaths per year
• Struck by a moving vehicle: third most common, averaging approximately 21 deaths per year
• Together these three categories account for approximately 60% of all fatal injuries to workers

By worker profile:

• 95% of fatalities involve male workers — reflecting the demographics of the highest-risk industries
• Workers aged 60 and over account for approximately 40% of fatalities despite representing only around 11% of the workforce

Members of the public:

• The 92 public fatalities in 2024/25 are reported separately from worker fatalities and cover members of the public who were killed as a result of work-related activities — for example, pedestrians near construction sites, shoppers in retail environments, and visitors to industrial premises.

Non-Fatal Injuries Reported Under RIDDOR

The 59,219 non-fatal injuries reported by employers in 2024/25 represent the legally reported, employer-side record of more serious non-fatal workplace incidents. This figure:

• Is the second-lowest on record — reflecting a sustained long-term downward trend in employer-reported incident rates
• Represents a rate of 209 injuries per 100,000 employees
• Compares to 680,000 self-reported injuries in the same period via the Labour Force Survey (see the Reporting Gap section below)
• Covers injuries that either fall into the specified injury categories or result in more than seven days' absence from work or normal duties

Injury severity: Of the 680,000 self-reported injuries captured by the LFS, approximately 82% resulted in up to seven days off work — meaning they would not qualify for RIDDOR reporting even if accurate. The RIDDOR figures therefore capture the more serious end of the non-fatal injury spectrum: those severe enough to meet the specified injury criteria or to keep workers off normal duties for over a week.

The Causes of RIDDOR-Reported Injuries

RIDDOR data provides the most detailed breakdown of the causes of more serious workplace injuries. For 2024/25, the accident kinds responsible for the largest shares of RIDDOR-reported non-fatal injuries were:

• Slips, trips and falls on the same level: 30% — the most common cause of RIDDOR-reported non-fatal injuries year after year, driven by wet surfaces, obstructed walkways, and poor housekeeping across all sectors
• Handling, lifting or carrying: 17% — manual handling injuries remain the second most common RIDDOR cause, reflecting the physical demands of warehousing, logistics, construction, healthcare, and retail
• Struck by a moving object: 10% — including falling materials, machinery-projected objects, and moving vehicles
• Acts of violence: 10% — physical assaults at work, concentrated in healthcare, social care, education, and retail environments
• Falls from height: 8% — fewer in number than same-level falls but responsible for a disproportionate share of the most serious injuries and the largest fraction of workplace deaths

These five categories together account for approximately 75% of all RIDDOR-reported non-fatal injuries. The pattern has remained broadly consistent year on year, underlining that the most common causes of reportable workplace injuries are long-established and well understood.

The RIDDOR Reporting Gap: What the Numbers Don't Show

One of the most important aspects of interpreting RIDDOR statistics is understanding the significant gap between what is reported and what actually occurs.

The LFS vs. RIDDOR comparison:In 2024/25, the Labour Force Survey estimated that 680,000 workers sustained a non-fatal workplace injury. In the same period, only 59,219 injuries were reported by employers under RIDDOR. The two figures are not directly comparable — the LFS captures all injuries regardless of severity or time off work, while RIDDOR captures only those meeting the specified criteria. The majority of the gap is accounted for by the large volume of injuries causing fewer than seven days' absence that would never be RIDDOR-reportable.

Employer underreporting of qualifying incidents:However, the HSE explicitly acknowledges that employers substantially underreport even those injuries that do qualify under RIDDOR. The HSE estimates that the current level of employer reporting of RIDDOR-defined non-fatal injuries is around half — meaning that for every qualifying injury that is reported, approximately one qualifying injury goes unreported. The true number of RIDDOR-qualifying incidents is therefore approximately double the reported figure, or around 120,000 per year.

This underreporting has several causes:

• Employers uncertain whether a specific injury meets RIDDOR criteria
• Small businesses with limited health and safety management capacity
• Concern that reporting will trigger HSE investigation
• Injuries that initially appear minor but later exceed the seven-day threshold, by which point the reporting deadline may have passed
• Agency workers whose injuries may fall between the reporting responsibilities of the host employer and the employment agency

The consequence of underreporting:The gap in RIDDOR data means that the HSE is working with an incomplete picture of workplace harm — and that sectors, employers, and types of work with genuinely elevated risk may appear safer than they are when measured only by their RIDDOR reporting rate. Comparisons between industries using RIDDOR data must account for the likelihood that reporting rates differ across sectors.

RIDDOR by Industry

RIDDOR data consistently identifies the same sectors as generating the highest volumes of reported incidents. For 2024/25:

Construction records the highest number of worker fatalities (35) and above-average non-fatal injury rates. The fatal injury rate of 1.92 per 100,000 workers is approximately 4.8 times the all-industry average, and construction's non-fatal RIDDOR-reported injury rate of 2.5% is significantly above the all-industry average of around 1.8–2%.

Transportation and storage records above-average non-fatal injury rates and the third-highest number of fatalities at 15. Workplace transport incidents — particularly vehicle-pedestrian collisions — drive a significant share of the sector's RIDDOR reports.

Manufacturing recorded 11 fatalities in 2024/25 and generates a substantial volume of non-fatal RIDDOR reports from machinery contact, manual handling, and workplace transport incidents.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing has the highest fatal injury rate of any sector by rate per 100,000 workers, with 23 deaths in 2024/25 from a relatively small workforce.

Accommodation and food service activities recorded the highest rate of self-reported non-fatal workplace injuries in 2024/25 — a notable shift from previous years, reflecting the intense physical demands and pace of hospitality environments.

Wholesale and retail trade consistently generates large volumes of non-fatal RIDDOR reports given the scale of the workforce, with manual handling and slips and trips as the dominant causes.

Dangerous Occurrences and Occupational Diseases

Beyond injuries, RIDDOR captures two additional categories that are important to employers but receive less public attention:

Dangerous occurrences — near-miss events with the potential to cause death or serious injury — must be reported even when no one is harmed. Common reportable dangerous occurrences include scaffold collapses, lifting equipment failures, electrical fires, accidental releases of hazardous substances, and contact with overhead power lines. The purpose is to allow the HSE to investigate high-potential incidents before a fatality or serious injury occurs. Employers frequently overlook their obligation to report dangerous occurrences that result in no immediate injury.

Occupational diseases are reported at a substantially lower rate than their true prevalence would suggest. The most commonly reported occupational diseases under RIDDOR are carpal tunnel syndrome, hand-arm vibration syndrome, occupational dermatitis, occupational asthma, and tendonitis — conditions that develop over sustained periods of occupational exposure rather than from a single incident. Reporting is triggered by a written medical diagnosis, meaning the obligation only arises once formal diagnosis has been made — and since many workers with early-stage occupational diseases do not seek diagnosis, many cases are never reported.

The gap between RIDDOR-reported occupational disease data and the true burden of work-related ill health is even larger than for injuries. The HSE's Labour Force Survey data estimates that 511,000 workers suffered from work-related musculoskeletal disorders in 2024/25 and 964,000 from work-related stress, depression or anxiety — conditions that generate virtually no RIDDOR reports at all, because they either do not meet the specific reportable disease criteria or go undiagnosed.

Penalties for Failing to Report Under RIDDOR

RIDDOR is a criminal statute. Failing to report a qualifying incident is not an administrative failure — it is a criminal offence.

The legal position:

• A responsible person who fails to report a RIDDOR-qualifying incident commits a criminal offence.
• On summary conviction (Magistrates' Court), the maximum fine is £20,000.
• On indictment (Crown Court), the fine is unlimited.
• Individuals can face up to 2 years' imprisonment.
• Directors and company officers face potential disqualification.

The real consequences:Beyond the headline penalties, failure to report under RIDDOR carries additional consequences that are frequently more damaging than the direct fine:

• An unreported incident typically comes to light through injury claims, witness accounts, or subsequent inspections — at which point the failure to report is treated by the HSE as evidence of broader safety management failures, increasing the severity of any subsequent prosecution.
• By the time an unreported incident is discovered, the scene may have been disturbed and evidence lost — precisely the scenario that occurred in the only known imprisonment case, where a builder failed to report a worker's leg amputation. The site was nearly complete by the time the HSE was alerted, preventing meaningful investigation. The court sentenced the builder to six months' imprisonment — the first custodial sentence for RIDDOR non-compliance — describing the failure as "wilful blindness."
• HSE investigation following an unreported serious incident will typically uncover related safety management failures, generating additional enforcement action.

The HSE's enforcement capacity:The HSE carried out over 13,200 workplace inspections in 2024/25 — a 47% increase on previous years. In prosecutions it brings, the HSE achieves a 94% conviction rate, and the average prosecution fine for the 12 months from August 2024 was £170,000. Total prosecution fines in 2024 reached approximately £39.75 million.

Long-Term Trends in RIDDOR Data

RIDDOR data reveals two distinct long-term trends that reflect very different aspects of workplace safety progress:

Fatal injuries: The long-term trend in RIDDOR-reported fatalities is unambiguously downward — from 495 deaths in 1981 to 223 in 2004/05 to 124 in 2024/25. This represents one of the most substantial improvements in industrial safety of any comparable economy. However, the rate has broadly plateaued over the past decade, oscillating around 120–140 deaths per year without a clear continued downward trajectory.

Non-fatal employer-reported injuries: RIDDOR-reported non-fatal injuries have followed a sustained long-term downward trend. The 59,219 injuries reported in 2024/25 represent the second-lowest figure on record and a rate of 209 per 100,000 employees — substantially below the rates recorded in the early 2000s.

Self-reported injuries (LFS): In contrast to the sustained improvement in RIDDOR-reported non-fatal injuries, self-reported injuries via the LFS have broadly plateaued over the past five years at levels similar to 2018/19, suggesting that while more serious incidents are being prevented, less severe workplace injuries are not declining at the same rate.

The divergence between the two trends: The fact that RIDDOR-reported injuries are declining while LFS self-reported injuries have plateaued may reflect several things — genuine improvements in preventing the more serious incidents that trigger RIDDOR reporting, a shift toward less severe injuries that fall below the RIDDOR threshold, changes in how workers report injuries, or the growth of employment models (gig working, agency work, self-employment) in which the relationship between worker, employer, and reporting obligation is less clear.

What RIDDOR Data Is Used For

RIDDOR statistics form a critical part of the UK's evidence base for workplace health and safety. The uses of RIDDOR data extend well beyond compliance:

HSE enforcement targeting: RIDDOR reports are the primary trigger for HSE investigation following serious incidents. All RIDDOR-reported fatalities and specified injuries are reviewed by the HSE, and a proportion lead to formal investigation and potential prosecution. In 2024/25, the HSE investigated approximately 9% of the 59,219 RIDDOR-reported non-fatal injuries to employees.

National statistics: The HSE's annual publication of workplace safety statistics — including the headline figures for UK workplace deaths, injuries, and ill health — draws directly on RIDDOR data for its fatal injury figures and as one of the two primary sources for non-fatal injury data.

Sector-specific enforcement programmes: Patterns in RIDDOR data identify sectors, activities, and types of incident with disproportionate representation. These patterns directly inform the HSE's targeted inspection campaigns and sector-specific safety guidance.

Legislative and policy development: Aggregate RIDDOR data informs reviews of health and safety legislation, the development of new guidance, and the prioritisation of the HSE's 10-year strategy (Protecting People and Places, 2022–2032).

Employer benchmarking: Employers and their safety managers use published RIDDOR data to benchmark their own performance against sector averages — and HSE-published industry breakdowns allow comparison at a more granular level than the national headline figures.

Research and insurance: RIDDOR data underpins academic research into occupational health and safety, actuarial analysis by employers' liability insurers, and the evidence base for HSE's own economic analysis of the cost of workplace injury.

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 all employer-reported incidents 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

• Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – RIDDOR: Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations: https://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/
• HSE – Health and Safety at Work: Summary Statistics for Great Britain 2025: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/
• HSE – Non-Fatal Injuries at Work in Great Britain 2024/25: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causinj/
• HSE – Work-Related Fatal Injuries in Great Britain 2024/25: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/fatals.htm
• HSE – Kind of Accident Statistics in Great Britain 2025: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causinj/
• HSE – Costs to Great Britain of Workplace Injuries and New Cases of Work-Related Ill Health 2023/24: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/cost.htm
• The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1471): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/1471/contents/made

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