By Sam Hexter-Andrews, Founder, Graftly
Construction recorded more worker deaths than any other main industry in Great Britain in 2025/26.
According to the Health and Safety Executive's latest figures, 25 construction workers were killed during the year, while construction's fatal injury rate was around five times the all-industry average. Over the past five years, more than half of construction worker deaths were caused by falls from height.
The figures are particularly relevant for self-employed tradespeople.
Self-employed workers accounted for around a third of all worker deaths in 2025/26, despite representing roughly 15% of the workforce. The HSE also notes that non-fatal injuries are substantially under-reported, particularly among the self-employed.
Against that backdrop, the rules governing workplace injury and disease reporting could also be changing.
What is changing with RIDDOR?
RIDDOR — the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations — sets out which workplace injuries, occupational diseases and dangerous incidents must be formally reported. For the reporting basics, see our RIDDOR guide for UK trades.
The HSE consulted during 2026 on what would be the first major overhaul of RIDDOR since 2013.
Among the proposals is an expansion of the list of reportable occupational diseases from six to 19, including noise-induced hearing loss for the first time. RIDDOR applies to self-employed people as well as employers where the relevant reporting conditions are met.
The consultation closed on 7 July 2026. At the time of writing, HSE has not published its response, and the proposals have not changed the current RIDDOR rules. Any legislative changes would also need wider Government agreement.
For larger businesses with dedicated health and safety teams, changes to reporting rules can be absorbed into existing processes.
For a sole trader or small contractor, the practical impact can be very different.
More reportable conditions potentially means more information to capture, more situations to recognise correctly and more responsibility sitting with the person already managing the job itself.
Why this matters particularly for self-employed trades
Small contractors and sole traders often operate without dedicated administrative or health and safety support.
That can mean site documentation gets fitted around the work rather than treated as a separate function.
Risk assessments may be reused from previous jobs. Method statements may live in Word documents. Incident information can be kept across notebooks, email, spreadsheets or not formally recorded at all.
That doesn't necessarily reflect a lack of concern about safety. More often, it reflects the reality that the same person carrying out the work is also responsible for quoting, scheduling, customer communication, paperwork and compliance.
The latest injury figures make that especially important.
If self-employed workers are disproportionately represented in fatal workplace incidents, while non-fatal injuries are also more likely to be under-reported, the quality of day-to-day site records matters well beyond simply satisfying paperwork requirements.
What should sole traders and small contractors do now?
The final outcome of the RIDDOR consultation still needs to be confirmed, but businesses do not need to wait for regulatory change before improving how they record site safety information.
A practical starting point is to make sure you can consistently answer a few basic questions.
Do you know what needs to be recorded?
Incident reporting, near misses, risk assessments and RIDDOR reporting are related, but they are not the same thing.
Not every workplace incident is reportable under RIDDOR, but having a clear internal record makes it much easier to establish what happened and whether further action is required.
Are your records specific to the actual job?
Generic documents can quickly become meaningless if they do not reflect the people, hazards, equipment and site conditions involved.
A useful risk assessment or RAMS document should reflect the work actually being carried out rather than simply repeating wording from an old template. Our RAMS template for UK trades and contractors shows what a job-specific document can include.
Could you find the information again if you needed it?
Good records are only useful if they can be retrieved later.
That includes knowing which document applied to a particular site, who was briefed, what controls were agreed and what happened following an incident or near miss.
Are incidents and near misses being captured consistently?
Where records rely on memory or informal messages, useful information can easily disappear.
A simple, repeatable process for recording what happened, when, who was involved and what action followed makes it easier to spot patterns and respond appropriately. See our accident report form for UK workplaces and trades and guidance on near miss reporting.
Falls from height remain a major construction risk
The latest HSE figures are a reminder that some of the industry's most familiar risks remain among its most serious.
More than half of construction worker deaths over the past five years were caused by falls from height.
That makes planning, briefing and recording work at height particularly important for trades carrying out roofing, access, maintenance, ceiling work and other tasks where a fall could occur.
A toolbox talk does not replace a risk assessment or RAMS, but it can help ensure the people carrying out the work understand the hazards and controls before the task begins. Our working at height toolbox talk for UK trades is a practical starting point.
The paperwork problem is often a practical one
Graftly was created around a simple observation: the people most exposed to site risk are often the same people with the least time and administrative support to manage the paperwork around it.
Founder Sam Hexter-Andrews grew up around construction through his father's business, Principle Construction, before moving into a career in product management. He later returned to a problem he had seen repeatedly on site: safety documents copied from previous jobs, rushed risk assessments and paperwork that did not always reflect what was actually happening.
"This isn't a problem I discovered through market research. I've seen what site paperwork actually looks like in practice: copied Word docs, rushed risk assessments, forms that don't reflect what's actually happening on the job. Graftly is what I'd have wanted to hand people fifteen years ago."
Graftly is designed for UK trades and small site teams who want to create and keep site documentation in one place, including RAMS, risk assessments, method statements, COSHH assessments, toolbox talks and incident records.
Key figures
25
Construction workers killed in Great Britain in 2025/26.
5×
Approximate construction fatal injury rate compared with the all-industry average.
More than 50%
Share of construction worker deaths over the past five years caused by falls from height.
Around one third
Share of all worker deaths involving self-employed people in 2025/26.
6 → 19
Proposed increase in the number of occupational diseases covered by RIDDOR reporting.
Sources and methodology
The injury figures used in this article are drawn from the Health and Safety Executive's Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain, 2026, published on 1 July 2026. The 2025/26 figures are provisional and are due to be finalised in July 2027.
The under-reporting reference comes from the HSE's Construction statistics in Great Britain, 2025.
The proposed RIDDOR changes were consulted on by the HSE between 7 April and 7 July 2026.