Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what conversations her department has had with the Health and Safety Executive with regards to their policy on verifying the accuracy of RIDDOR reports submitted by employers following workplace incidents.

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 2013 specify that the duty to make reports and follow the reporting procedure rests with the Responsible Person, as defined, which is often an employer. The reports must be sent to the relevant enforcing authority.

It is an offence for a person to intentionally make a false entry in a document required by relevant statutory provisions such as RIDDOR, or, with an intent to deceive, use such an entry which he knows to be false.

HSE receives tens of thousands of RIDDOR reports per year and therefore given this very high number of reports, it does not verify the accuracy of each report. To do so could also impose unnecessary burdens on business.

Each RIDDOR report for which HSE is the enforcing authority, is considered for selection for further intervention by HSE. When an incident subject to a RIDDOR report is selected, for example to be investigated, the content of the report is scrutinised by the lead investigator and used to inform investigation planning.

HSE publishes guidance for members of the public, employees, injured people and their representatives, who are concerned that their accident or work-related disease has not been properly reported. They can raise a concern to inform HSE about an incident, or any concerns about risks to health and safety, and HSE will follow up with the business or organisation involved.