HSE RIDDOR Consultation 2026: What Proposed Changes Could Mean for UK Trades

HSE RIDDOR consultation 2026: why trades should pay attention

RIDDOR can sometimes feel like something that only matters after a major accident. In reality, it sits much closer to day-to-day site safety. It shapes what must be reported, who may be responsible for reporting it, and how serious incidents, dangerous occurrences and work-related ill health are captured by the regulator.

At the time of writing, these are proposed changes, not confirmed new rules. The consultation is part of HSE's review of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013, commonly known as RIDDOR.

But the direction of travel is clear. HSE is looking at how to make reporting clearer, more usable and more aligned with modern workplace risks.

For construction firms, maintenance teams, contractors, facilities teams and self-employed tradespeople, that matters. Because if incident reporting becomes clearer, simpler and more data-led, informal site admin becomes harder to defend.

A quick note on "UK" vs "Great Britain"

This article uses "UK trades" because that is how many contractors search for health and safety guidance online. However, the HSE consultation relates to the RIDDOR framework in Great Britain.

Businesses working across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should check the relevant regulator and rules for their location. This article is general information only and should not be treated as legal advice.

What is RIDDOR?

RIDDOR stands for the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. It requires certain workplace incidents to be reported to the relevant enforcing authority. This can include work-related deaths, specified injuries, certain occupational diseases and specified dangerous occurrences.

The reporting duty can apply to employers, some self-employed people, and people in control of work premises.

For trades and site-based businesses, RIDDOR can become relevant across many common working environments, including:

• Construction sites
• Domestic renovation projects
• Commercial fit-outs
• Maintenance and repair work
• Roofing and scaffolding
• Plumbing and electrical work
• Demolition and refurbishment
• Facilities management
• Landscaping, groundwork and civils

The difficulty is that RIDDOR can be hard to interpret in practice. Many smaller businesses are unsure what counts as "work-related", what qualifies as a "dangerous occurrence", or when an incident crosses the threshold for formal reporting.

That creates two risks. Some incidents may be under-reported because teams do not realise they meet the threshold. Others may be over-reported because businesses are trying to do the right thing but lack confidence in the rules. The HSE consultation is designed to address that confusion.

What is HSE proposing to change?

The consultation focuses on both legislative and non-legislative proposals. For trades, the most relevant areas are likely to be clearer definitions, changes to occupational disease reporting, broader diagnosis routes, updates to dangerous occurrences, and improvements to the online reporting process.

1. Clearer RIDDOR definitions

HSE is consulting on changes to clarify terms that have caused uncertainty, including "work-related", "injury" and "routine work". This matters because wording affects real reporting decisions.

If an incident happens on site, it is not always obvious whether the work activity itself caused the incident, contributed to it, or simply happened to be the setting. Clearer definitions should help duty holders make more consistent decisions.

For trades, this could reduce grey areas around incidents involving subcontractors, members of the public, shared working areas, temporary works, site access, plant, tools, materials and changing site conditions. Clearer wording will not remove the need for judgement. But it should make expectations easier to understand.

2. Changes to reportable occupational diseases

One of the most important areas for blue-collar and site-based sectors is occupational disease. The consultation proposes revising the list of reportable occupational diseases so serious work-related ill health is better captured.

That is particularly relevant to trades exposed to hazards such as:

• Dust
• Silica
• Asbestos
• Noise
• Vibration
• Chemicals
• Fumes
• Repetitive manual tasks
• Long-term tool or equipment use

For construction and maintenance businesses, the practical message is clear: safety is not only about visible accidents. Falls, cuts, burns and crush injuries are easy to understand as safety events. Long-term exposure risks can be harder to spot, harder to record and easier to dismiss until they become serious.

The proposed RIDDOR changes suggest occupational health may become a more prominent part of reporting and record keeping. That means businesses should think carefully about how they record exposure risks, controls, PPE, training, briefings and worker concerns.

3. Broader diagnosis routes for occupational diseases

HSE is also consulting on whether the diagnosis of occupational disease should be accepted from a wider range of registered health practitioners, not only doctors registered with the General Medical Council.

This reflects how workers often engage with health services in the real world. A worker may speak to an occupational health nurse, physiotherapist, specialist practitioner or other healthcare professional before seeing a doctor. If the rules change, businesses may need to pay closer attention to how health-related information is received, recorded and escalated.

For trade businesses, the practical point is not to start making medical decisions internally. It is to make sure there is a clear process for capturing concerns, referring workers appropriately, recording follow-up actions and keeping the right information together.

4. Updates to dangerous occurrences

Dangerous occurrences are serious incidents that may be reportable even where nobody is injured. For trades, this could be one of the most important parts of the consultation.

HSE is considering changes to the list of dangerous occurrences so it better reflects modern risks. Commentary on the consultation has highlighted potential relevance to construction, demolition, plant, temporary works, falling objects, structural collapse and trench collapse.

That matters because near misses are often where the most useful safety lessons are found. A scaffold board shifts. A trench edge gives way. A temporary support fails. A tool or material falls from height. Plant comes close to overturning. A member of the public enters an active work area. A wall or structure moves unexpectedly during demolition or refurbishment.

Nobody may be hurt. But the business still needs to understand what happened, what could have happened, what controls were in place, and what changed afterwards.

If dangerous occurrence categories are clarified or expanded, serious near misses will become harder to treat as informal events that disappear into a WhatsApp thread, a site diary note or someone's memory.

5. A simpler online RIDDOR reporting process

HSE is also seeking views on simplifying the online reporting process. This is important for smaller businesses because the current reporting process can feel intimidating, especially where there is no dedicated health and safety manager.

A clearer online form may reduce errors, improve usability and help businesses submit better-quality information. But a simpler external form does not remove the need for strong internal records. If anything, it makes the preparation stage more important.

Before submitting any formal report, a business may need to understand:

• What happened
• When and where it happened
• Who was involved
• What work was being carried out
• What controls were in place
• Whether the incident was work-related
• What immediate action was taken
• What follow-up action was agreed
• What supporting documents exist

That information is much easier to capture at the time than reconstruct days, weeks or months later.

What could this mean for UK trades?

For larger organisations, RIDDOR changes may be handled by legal teams, compliance teams or health and safety departments. For smaller contractors and blue-collar businesses, the responsibility often sits with the owner, supervisor, contracts manager or working foreman.

That creates a practical challenge. The person responsible for site safety admin may also be pricing jobs, ordering materials, managing labour, dealing with clients and trying to keep the project moving.

When something happens, the first priority is rightly to make people safe. But once the immediate risk is controlled, the quality of the record matters. The proposed RIDDOR changes point to three practical shifts for trades.

1. Near-miss reporting needs to become more consistent

Near misses are often treated informally because no one was injured. That is understandable, but risky.

A serious near miss can reveal the same underlying failure as a serious accident: poor planning, unclear communication, missing controls, unsuitable equipment, weak supervision or a changing site condition that was not properly managed.

Trades should not wait for confirmed legal changes before improving how near misses are recorded. A useful near-miss record should capture:

• The date and location
• The work being carried out
• The people or roles involved
• What happened
• What could have happened
• Photos or supporting evidence where appropriate
• Immediate action taken
• Follow-up action required
• Who owns the follow-up
• When the follow-up was completed

This does not need to be complicated. It just needs to be consistent.

2. Site records need to connect the full story

A RIDDOR report does not sit in isolation. If a serious incident or dangerous occurrence is reviewed, the surrounding records may matter too. That could include risk assessments, method statements, inductions, toolbox talks, PPE records, photographs, witness notes, site diaries, incident logs and corrective actions.

The strongest position is not simply "we reported it". It is being able to show:

• What was planned
• What risks were identified
• What controls were communicated
• What happened on site
• What action was taken afterwards
• What changed to reduce the chance of it happening again

For small businesses, that is where simple, joined-up documentation can make a meaningful difference.

3. Informal admin is becoming a bigger liability

Many trade businesses still rely on scattered records. Paper forms in vans. Photos buried in camera rolls. PDFs saved to someone's laptop. Messages split across WhatsApp groups. Site notes that never make it back to the office.

That may feel manageable when work is going well. It becomes a problem when something goes wrong.

The proposed RIDDOR reforms reinforce a wider shift in site safety: businesses need records that are clear, accessible and created close to the work. Not because paperwork is the goal. Because good records help prove that risks were considered, controls were communicated and lessons were acted on.

What should trades do now?

The consultation is not a reason to panic or overhaul every process overnight. It is a good moment to review how your business currently handles accidents, incidents, near misses and health-related concerns.

A practical review could start with these questions:

• Who is responsible for RIDDOR decisions in the business?
• Do supervisors know which incidents should be escalated?
• Are near misses recorded consistently?
• Are incident records stored somewhere accessible?
• Can incident records be linked back to RAMS or site safety documents?
• Are corrective actions assigned to a named person?
• Is there a record of when follow-up actions are completed?
• Are occupational health concerns captured and escalated appropriately?
• Could you evidence what happened six months later?

The best safety systems are not always the most complex. They are the ones people actually use. For trades, that means simple workflows, clear prompts and records that can be created on site, not reconstructed later from memory.

Where Graftly fits in

Graftly is built for real site teams that need safety documentation to be practical, fast and easy to keep organised.

The proposed RIDDOR changes point towards a more evidence-led future for incident reporting. That does not mean every contractor needs enterprise-level compliance software or a full-time health and safety department. It does mean businesses need better habits around site records.

Graftly helps trades create, manage and store practical site safety documents, including RAMS, incident and near-miss records, and supporting site information.

Graftly does not decide whether something is RIDDOR-reportable. It does not replace official HSE reporting, legal advice or competent health and safety support.

What it can do is help businesses keep the right information together, so that when something happens, they are not starting from a blank page.

Because the question is rarely just:

"Did you report it?"

It is also:

"What did you know?"

"What had you planned?"

"What did your team record?"

"What changed afterwards?"

Final thoughts

The HSE RIDDOR consultation is still a consultation. The rules have not changed yet.

But for UK trades, the direction is worth taking seriously. The likely future of incident reporting is clearer, more structured and more evidence-led. Occupational health, dangerous occurrences, near misses and better-quality records are all moving higher up the agenda.

That should be seen as an opportunity. Better reporting does not just reduce compliance risk. It can help prevent repeat incidents, improve communication, protect workers and give clients more confidence that site safety is being managed properly.

The trades that get ahead of this now will be in a stronger position if and when the rules change.

Disclaimer: This article is general information only and does not constitute legal advice. RIDDOR duties depend on the facts of each incident and the relevant enforcing authority. Businesses should refer to official HSE guidance and seek competent professional advice where required.