United Kingdom

Organization responsible for the statistics

Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Periodicity

  1. Twice yearly, with provisional figures in July, and final figures the following April-May.
  2. Annual.

Source

Reports of occupational injuries made to the health and safety enforcing authorities (the Health and Safety Executive and local authorities) under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR 95). (From 1981 to 1985, reports made under the Notification of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1980 - NADOR - and under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1985 from 1986 to 1995.)

Objectives and users

Major users:

Health and Safety Commission and Executive, external customers, companies, students, etc.

Coverage

Persons:

Employees (including trainees), self-employed persons, and members of the public injured as a result of someone else's work activity. (The data supplied to the ILO for publication relate to employees only.)

In 1994-95, about 21,093,900 employees and 3,247,100 self-employed persons were covered.

Economic activities:

All economic activities and sectors, excluding sea fishing and incidents reported under merchant shipping legislation, and air transport.

Geographic areas:

Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), excluding Northern Ireland which has its own Inspectorates. (However, as from 1994, Northern Ireland is included in the figures supplied to the ILO for publication.)

Persons injured in occupational accidents outside the country are not covered.

Persons normally resident outside the country who are injured in occupational accidents occurring within Great Britain are included.

Establishments:

All types and sizes of establishments.

Types of occupational accidents covered

The statistics cover reported injuries due to all types of accidents arising out of or in connection with work, excluding road traffic accidents, which should be reported to the police.

Statistics of occupational diseases are compiled and published separately.

Commuting accidents are not included.

Concepts and definitions

(Source: Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974).

Accident:

the term accident is not fully defined in RIDDOR and so takes its usual meaning in English; however, the Regulations do define it to include:

  1. an act of non-consensual physical violence done to a person at work; and
  2. an act of suicide which occurs on, or in the course of the operation of, a relevant transport system (railways, tramways and other guided transport systems)
To be reportable under RIDDOR, an accident must have arisen out of or in connection with work and led to one of the specified reportable injuries or occurrences (see below).

Work and At work:

the terms work and at work include work as an employee or self-employed person, work experience provided in connection with a training course or programme (except simulated work experience provided directly by an educational establishment on its premises as part of a course) and training for employment; an extended definition of at work applies for the purposes of RIDDOR to people at offshore workplaces. (Source: HSW Act, as modified by the Health and Safety (Training for Employment) Regulations 1990).

Arising out of or in connection with work:

this is not fully defined in the Regulations and so takes its usual meaning in English; however, the Regulations define it to include:

  1. the manner of conducting an undertaking, i.e. the way in which any work activity is being carried out for the purposes of an undertaking, including how it is organized, supervised or performed by an employer or any of their employees, or by a self-employed person;
  2. the plant or substances used for the purposes of an undertaking, including, for example, lifts, air conditioning plant, any machinery, equipment or appliance; gas installations; and substances used in connection with the premises or with processes carried on there;
  3. the condition of the premises used by the undertaking or of any part of them, including the state of the structure or fabric of a building or outside area forming part of the premises and the state and design of floors, paving, stairs, lighting, etc.

Major injury:

  1. any fracture, other than to the fingers, thumbs or toes;
  2. any amputation;
  3. dislocation of the shoulder, hip, knee or spine;
  4. loss of sight (whether temporary or permanent);
  5. a chemical or hot metal burn to the eye or any penetrating injury to the eye;
  6. any injury resulting from an electric shock or electric burn (including any electrical burn caused by arcing or arcing products) leading to unconsciousness or requiring resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours;
  7. any other injury:
  8. loss of consciousness caused by asphyxia or by exposure to a harmful substance or biological agent;
  9. either of the following conditions which results from the absorption of any substance by inhalation, ingestion or through the skin:
  10. acute illness which requires medical treatment where there is reason to believe that this resulted from exposure to a biological agent or its toxins or infected material.

Over-three-day injury:

an injury suffered by an employee or a self-employed person as a result of an accident connected with work, which is not a major injury but results in the injured person being away from work or unable to do their normal work for more than three consecutive days, including non work days.

Non-fatal injury to a member of the public:

a person who is not at work suffers an injury and is taken from the site of the accident to a hospital; or, if the accident takes place at a hospital, a person who is not at work suffers a defined major injury (see above).

Minimum period of absence from normal work activity: absence from work is not necessary to trigger a report, although over-three-day injuries are reportable (see above).

Maximum period for death to be considered a fatal occupational injury: for an employee, one year after the accident.

Types of information compiled

(a) personal characteristics of persons injured: sex, age, occupation, status;

(b) amount of worktime lost: none;

(c) characteristics of accidents: year, kind of accident, process at the time of the accident;

(d) characteristics of injuries: severity, nature of injury, site of injury;

(e) characteristics of employers or workplaces: economic activity, geographical location.

Measurement of worktime lost

Not relevant.

Classifications

(a) fatal or non-fatal accidents;

(b) extent of disability:

severity of injury (fatal injuries, non-fatal major injuries, over-three-day injuries);

(c) economic activity:

according to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 1992 (previously, according to SIC 80);

(d) occupation:

according to the Standard Occupational Classification (previously, according to the HSE's own classification), at the level of the individual occupation;

(e) type of injury:

nature of injury: amputation; loss of sight of eye; fracture; dislocation; concussion and internal injuries; lacerations and open wounds; contusions; burns; poisonings and gassings; sprains and strains; superficial injuries; natural causes; other injuries caused by contact with electricity; injuries of more than one type; injuries not elsewhere classified; injuries not known;

site of injury: head locations: eye, ear, other part of face, head (excluding face), several locations of head; torso locations: neck, back, trunk, several locations of torso; upper limb locations: one or more fingers or thumbs, hand, wrist, rest of upper limb, several locations of upper limb; lower limb locations: one or more toes, foot, ankle, rest of lower limb, several locations of lower limb; several locations; general locations; unspecified locations;

(f) cause of accident:

see kind of accident under (i);

(g) duration of absence from work:

not relevant;

(h) characteristics of persons injured:

sex; age group (under 16, 16-19, 20-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65 and over, unknown); employment status (employees, including trainees; self-employed; members of the public);

(i) characteristics of accidents:

process at time of accident; kind of accident (contact with moving machinery or material being machined; struck by moving, including flying or falling, object; struck by moving vehicle; struck against something fixed or stationary; injured whilst handling, lifting or carrying; slip, trip or fall on same level; fall from height: up to and including two metres, over two metres, height not stated; trapped by something collapsing or overturning; drowning or asphyxiation; exposure to or contact with harmful substance; exposure to fire; exposure to an explosion; contact with electricity or an electrical discharge; injured by an animal; other kind of accident; injuries not classified by kind);

(j) characteristics of employers or workplaces:

location, local authority area, HSE area, county, size of firm.

Crossclassifications:

data can be crossclassified across all the characteristics mentioned above.

Reference period

Year (year beginning 1 April).

An injury is included in the statistics for the period (year) in which the accident occurred.

Estimates

Totals.

Percentage distributions.

Incidence rates: number of persons injured per 100,000 employees, by severity of injury.

Historical background of the series

Statistics of injuries reported under RIDDOR 85 were first compiled with respect to 1986/87. Prior to that, statistics of injuries reported under the Notification of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1980 (NADOR) were compiled. The definitions differ between RIDDOR and NADOR, so that data for the two series are not comparable.

Statistics of injuries reported under RIDDOR 95 were first compiled for 1996/97. Changes in definitions of injuries mean that many of the statistics derived from reports under RIDDOR 95 are not comparable with statistics compiled under RIDDOR 85.

Documentation

Series available:

The following tables are published:

Number of persons injured, by economic activity and severity.

Number of fatal injuries, non-fatal major injuries and over-three-day injuries, by economic activity.

Number of employees injured and self-employed persons injured, by:

Injury rates for employees and self-employed persons, by economic activity and sex.

Bibliographic references:

The data are published in:

Health and Safety Commission: Health and Safety Statistics, Safety Statistics Bulletin (annual, since 1992/93).

idem: Annual Report (since 1992/93).

Prior to 1992/93:

Employment Department: Health and Safety Statistics (annual supplement to the Employment Gazette).

Methodological information is included in Health and Safety Commission: Health and Safety Statistics.

Not all the data are published, but can be obtained on request addressed to the Operations Unit, Safety and Enforcement Statistics. A charge may be made.

Data have been made available on diskette, but this is rare.

Data published by ILO:

The following data are furnished regularly to the ILO for publication in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics, relating to reported injuries incurred by employees, according to major division of economic activity: number of persons fatally injured, number of persons injured with lost workdays, total of these two groups; rates of fatal injuries. The number of persons at risk (total number of employees) is also supplied and stored in the LABORSTA database. As from 1994, Northern Ireland is included in the figures.

Confidentiality:

The data are covered by the Data Protection Act 1984, and the Health and Safety at Work Act - Section 28.

International standards

The international statistical standards and guidelines have been followed. The methods for the collection of the statistics were approved by the Health and Safety Commission, which represents workers, employers, consumers and local authorities. Reporting regulations were recently revised after an open consultation period.

Method of data collection

Legislation:

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR).

Employers are required to notify without delay (e.g. by telephone) all accidents connected with work in which an employee or self-employed person working on the premises is killed or suffers a major injury (including as a result of physical violence) or in which a member of the public is killed or taken to hospital. The notification should be followed up with a completed accident report. Accidents connected with work (including acts of physical violence) in which an employee or a self-employed person working on the premises suffers an injury leading to absence from work or inability to carry out their normal work for more than three days should be reported in writing within ten days. Under the system, certain work-related diseases and dangerous occurrences (i.e. an event which does not result in a notifiable injury, but which clearly could have done) should also be notified immediately, with a completed accident report provided within ten days. Self-employed persons injured while working on their own premises should send the notification within ten days or arrange for someone to do so on their behalf. Notifications relating to members of the public injured on their premises should be made without delay, followed by a written report within ten days.

Reporting:

In general, the employer or other responsible person must contact the environmental health department of local authority if the business is office based, retail or wholesale trade, warehousing, hotel or catering, sports or leisure, residential accommodation (excluding nursing homes) or concerned with places of worship. All other types of business should contact the area office of the Health and Safety Executive.

The employer or self-employed person must keep a record of any reportable injury, disease or dangerous occurrence. This should include the date and method of notification; the date, time and place of the event, personal details of those involved and a brief description of the nature of the event or disease. The record may be kept in any form, e.g. by keeping copies of completed accident report forms in a file or recording the details on a computer.

A standard accident report form (F2508) should be completed in each case. Instructions and guidance publications are provided, including the free leaflet, Everyone's guide to RIDDOR 95 (Health and Safety Executive, 1996), and the detailed Guide to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (HSE Books, 1996, ISBN 0-7176-1012-8).

Data reported:

The standard accident report form consists of the following:
  1. information about the employer or other responsible person: name, job titles, telephone number, name of organisation, address, type of work carried out by the organization;
  2. information about the incident: date and time; location; department or premises where the incident happened;
  3. information about the injured person: name, address, telephone number, age, sex, job title, whether the person was an employee, on a training scheme, on a work experience scheme, employed by someone else, self-employed and at work, a member of the public;
  4. information about the injury: nature of injury; part of body injured; whether the injury was fatal, a major injury or condition, an over-three-day injury to an employee or self-employed person, or an injury to a member of the public; whether the injured person became unconscious, needed resuscitation, remained in hospital for more than 24 hours, or none of these;
  5. information about the kind of accident;
  6. for dangerous occurrences: the code number of the type of occurrence;
  7. description of the incident, including the name of any substance involved, the name and type of any machine involved, the events that led to the incident, the part played by any people, what the injured person was doing; any action that had been taken since the incident to prevent a similar one occurring.

Changes planned:

Consideration is being given to allowing reports to be made by telephone alone, without the need to complete a paper report form. A pilot trial is running in Scotland until April 1998.

Additional information

Labour Force Survey

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) requires a benchmark against which to interpret the information on workplace injuries notified by employers, which is known to be incomplete. They are interested to know both the level and trends in workplace accidents and the variation in risks between the main economic activities. The Labour Force Survey results were a major input to the review of the reporting regulations for RIDDOR and will be used for monitoring the efficiency of the revised regulations. Data are used to inform the allocation of inspectors based on the level of risks at the detailed level of economic activity, and for the analyses of injuries included in the Annual Report of the Health and Safety Commission.

A supplement to the 1990 Labour Force Survey provided detailed data on accidents at work and work-related illnesses, including worktime lost for the first time. This contributed to a major HSE study on the costs of workplace accidents and work-related ill health to individuals, employers and the economy. The exercise was repeated in 1995.

Social Security schemes: These provide financial support to individuals and families for certain needs. If a person is unable to work or disabled because of an accident at work or one of the industrial diseases know to be a risk in the job, cash benefits may be payable, such as Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit and Incapacity Benefit.

In general, information is available on the number of beneficiaries and the amounts paid to them. However, for various reasons, including in particular the rules pertaining to the payments, the figures are not comparable with those published by the Health and Safety Executive.