Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many workplace injuries where exposure to high temperatures was a contributory factor were reported to the Health and Safety Executive in each year since 2009-10.

The ‘Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations’ (RIDDOR) puts duties on employers, some self-employed and people in control of work premises (the Responsible Person) to report certain serious workplace accidents.

RIDDOR is designed to collect top-level information on such cases, including information on the main accident factor, as assessed by the Responsible person making the report. RIDDOR does not however provide information on contributory factors associated with a reported injury.

Prior to September 2011 injury reports included detailed information on the main agent causing the injury. The table below shows the number of injuries to workers caused by exposure to hot environmental temperatures as reported to all enforcing authorities under RIDDOR (1995) for the years 2009/10 and 2010/11.

Table: Injuries to workers caused by exposure to hot environmental temperatures* as reported to all enforcing authorities under RIDDOR (1995), 2009/10 and 2010/11.

*identified by agent code 16.01: Physical phenom - heat

Since RIDDOR reporting moved online in September 2011 this information is no longer collected, so we cannot identify injuries caused by environmental heat from this date.