Is an Accident Book a Legal Requirement? UK Rules Explained

An accident book is a legal requirement for some employers, but not all — and the law that requires it is not health and safety law. The duty comes from regulation 25 of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979, and it applies to employers who normally employ 10 or more people at the same time on or about the same premises, and to owners or occupiers of factories, mines and quarries. Those employers must keep a means of recording accidents (in a book or electronically), in a form approved by the Secretary of State, and keep each record for at least 3 years. Smaller employers still have recording duties under RIDDOR.

At a glance: Nexis CPD’s £9 Accident Reporting and Investigation course covers recording, reporting and investigating workplace accidents. It is CPD accredited and 100% online with a verifiable e-certificate, and any three courses cost £18. It is awareness training, not a regulated qualification.

Is an accident book a legal requirement in the UK?

For many employers, yes. Regulation 25(3) of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979 applies to:

• every owner or occupier (being an employer) of any mine or quarry, or of any premises to which any of the provisions of the Factories Act 1961 apply; and
• “every employer by whom 10 or more persons are normally employed at the same time on or about the same premises in connection with a trade or business”.

Those employers must:

• “keep readily accessible a means (whether in a book or books or by electronic means), in a form approved by the Secretary of State”, by which an employee, or someone acting on their behalf, can record the particulars of any accident causing them personal injury; and
• “preserve every such record for the period of at least 3 years from the date of its entry”.

The threshold is worth reading carefully. It is not “10 employees in the company” — it is 10 or more people normally employed at the same time on or about the same premises. A business with 40 staff spread across many small sites may have premises below the threshold; a single shop with 12 people on shift at once is above it. Where the test is borderline, keeping an accident book anyway costs almost nothing.

The surprise for most people is the source of the duty. HSE confirms it on its RIDDOR record-keeping page, which refers to “employers who must keep an accident book (B1510) under Social security Law”. The accident book exists primarily so that injured employees have evidence of a work accident if they later claim industrial injuries benefits — which is why it sits in benefits legislation rather than in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

Where does the accident book rule come from?

The 1979 Regulations deal with claims for social security benefits, including industrial injuries benefits. GOV.UK explains that you might get Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit if you became ill or are disabled because of an accident or disease at work. For that system to work, there needs to be a contemporaneous record that an accident happened.

So the regulations put duties on both sides:

• The employee. Under regulation 24, every employed earner who suffers personal injury by accident for which benefit may be payable “shall give notice of such accident either in writing or orally as soon as is practicable”. Someone else may give notice on their behalf. Notice can go to the employer, a foreman or supervisor, or anyone the employer designates.
• The book as notice. Regulation 24(3) says an entry in the accident book, made as soon as practicable after the accident by the employee or someone on their behalf, “shall … be sufficient notice of the accident”.
• The employer. Regulation 25(1) says every employer “shall take reasonable steps to investigate the circumstances of every accident” notified to them, and if their findings differ from the notice, “he shall record the circumstances so found”.

That last duty applies to every employer who receives notice of an accident — not just those above the 10-person threshold. If an employee tells you they were injured at work, the law expects you to look into it.

What must be recorded in an accident book?

The minimum particulars are set out in Schedule 4 to the 1979 Regulations. There are five:

1. full name, address and occupation of the injured person;
2. date and time of the accident;
3. place where the accident happened;
4. cause and nature of the injury;
5. name, address and occupation of the person giving the notice, if other than the injured person.

That is the legal floor. Most employers record more, because the same entry often has to serve several purposes. HSE’s first aid FAQs suggest a first-aid record should include the date, time and place; the name and job of the injured or ill person; details of the injury and what first aid was given; what happened to the person immediately afterwards (went back to work, went home, went to hospital); and the name and signature of the person dealing with it.

A good entry is factual and specific. “Slipped” tells you little; “slipped on water from a leaking dishwasher outlet by the pot-wash sink at about 14:20” tells you what to fix. Write down what happened, not who was to blame — opinions about fault belong in the investigation, not the book.

How long must you keep accident book records?

Several overlapping rules apply:

• Social security law: at least 3 years from the date of the entry (regulation 25(3)(b)).
• RIDDOR: the RIDDOR record must be kept for at least 3 years from the date it was made, at the place where the work is carried on or at the responsible person’s usual place of business (regulation 12(2) of RIDDOR 2013).
• Personal injury claims: in England and Wales, section 11 of the Limitation Act 1980 gives three years to bring a personal injury claim — but counted from the date of the injury or the injured person’s “date of knowledge”, if later. A claim can therefore arrive more than three years after an entry was made.

Because of that last point, many employers and their insurers choose to keep accident records for longer than the statutory three years. How long is a decision for your own retention policy and your insurer, and under data protection law you need a reason for any period you choose. What you must not do is destroy an entry before three years have passed.

Can an accident book be electronic?

Yes. Since amendments that took effect on 27 September 1993, regulation 25(3)(a) has allowed the record to be kept “in a book or books or by electronic means”. The condition is that it is in “a form approved by the Secretary of State” and “readily accessible” to employees so they can make an entry.

HSE Books publishes the Accident Book (series code BL510, 2018 edition). HSE describes it as an essential document that “enables businesses to comply with legal requirements under social security and health and safety legislation, including … RIDDOR requirements”. Many employers use it as-is; others use an electronic incident system that captures the same particulars. Whatever you use, check that:

• every employee can actually reach it — a system only managers can log into is not “readily accessible”;
• it captures at least the Schedule 4 particulars;
• entries cannot be silently edited or deleted;
• it can produce the records RIDDOR requires.

How does the accident book relate to RIDDOR?

They are different duties that overlap. The accident book records accidents that cause injury to employees. RIDDOR — the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 — requires the “responsible person” to report certain serious incidents to the enforcing authority and to keep records.

Under RIDDOR regulation 12, the responsible person must keep a record of:

• any reportable incident (deaths, specified injuries, over-seven-day injuries, dangerous occurrences, and injuries to non-workers taken to hospital);
• any reportable diagnosis of occupational disease;
• any work injury that incapacitates a person “for routine work for more than three consecutive days (excluding the day of the accident)” — even though it is not reportable.

Regulation 12(4) says a record kept for another purpose satisfies RIDDOR if it covers the right injuries and includes the required particulars. HSE spells out the practical effect: employers who must keep an accident book “can use this for keeping the records of injuries although, a separate method will be needed for cases of disease”.

Two practical points follow. First, the RIDDOR recording duty applies regardless of headcount — so a business with five staff and no legal accident book still has to record over-three-day injuries somewhere. Second, the accident book does not report anything to anyone. Writing an entry does not satisfy a RIDDOR reporting duty, and HSE notes that information in a RIDDOR report “is not passed on to your insurance company” — so if your insurer needs to know, tell them separately.

Road traffic accidents are a special case. RIDDOR regulation 14(3) removes most injuries arising from “the movement of a vehicle on a road” from the reporting duties, with exceptions for incidents such as loading and unloading or roadworks. Those accidents still belong in your own records — see our guide to driving for work.

Who should fill in the accident book?

Ideally the injured person, as soon as practicable — that is the entry regulation 24(3) treats as notice. If they cannot (because they have been taken to hospital, for example), someone else can do it on their behalf, and Schedule 4 then requires that person’s details too.

In practice, first aiders, supervisors and managers often help complete entries. That is fine, provided the entry reflects the injured person’s account and they are not discouraged from making one. Telling an employee not to “bother with the book” can leave them without evidence for a benefits claim and leaves you without the information to stop it happening again.

HSE also recommends — as good practice rather than law — giving first aiders a book to record incidents they attend. Its first aid FAQs note “the record book is not the same as the statutory accident book though the two might be combined”. If you do combine them, make sure the combined record meets both purposes. Our guides to first aid training requirements and first aid kit requirements cover the rest of your first aid arrangements.

Do you have to investigate every accident?

Regulation 25(1) of the 1979 Regulations requires employers to take “reasonable steps to investigate the circumstances of every accident” notified under regulation 24. Separately, regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires arrangements for the “effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review” of preventive and protective measures — and HSE’s investigation guidance says investigations “form an essential part of this process”.

How deep you go depends on the event. HSE’s workbook HSG245, Investigating accidents and incidents, says “it is the potential consequences and the likelihood of the adverse event recurring that should determine the level of investigation, not simply the injury or ill health suffered on this occasion.” A trip that caused a bruise but could have caused a fall down stairs deserves more attention than its outcome suggests.

HSG245 sets out four steps:

1. Gathering the information — the scene, witness accounts, and documents such as risk assessments and procedures.
2. Analysing the information — working out what happened and why.
3. Identifying risk control measures — what needs to change.
4. The action plan and its implementation — who will do what, by when.

It distinguishes three levels of cause:

• Immediate causes — “the most obvious reason why an adverse event happens, eg the guard is missing; the employee slips”;
• Underlying causes — the less obvious “system” or organisational reasons, such as pre-start checks not being carried out;
• Root causes — “generally management, planning or organisational failings”.

HSE’s analogy is a weed: cut off the foliage and it grows back; you have to dig up the root. Mopping up the spill deals with the immediate cause. Asking why the dishwasher outlet was leaking for a week, and why nobody reported it, deals with the rest.

HSG245 is also blunt about blame: “Investigations should be conducted with accident prevention in mind, not placing blame”, and “be wary of blaming individuals”. It also recommends investigating near misses, which can be investigated “without the threat of criminal and civil action hanging over the whole proceedings”. (HSG245 dates from 2004 and refers to the 1995 RIDDOR regulations, since replaced by RIDDOR 2013, but its investigation method remains HSE’s published guidance.)

Is the accident book a data protection issue?

Yes. An accident entry names a person and describes their injury — information about health, which is “special category” data under Article 9 of the UK GDPR and needs extra protection.

The classic failure is an accident book left open on a counter or by the first aid box, where every customer or colleague can read the previous entries. Practical controls include:

• keeping completed entries somewhere secure, such as a locked cabinet, with access limited to people who need them;
• using a format where a new entry does not expose earlier ones;
• applying access controls and an audit trail to electronic systems;
• setting and following a retention period, then disposing of records securely.

None of this is a reason to record less. The legal duties to record accidents sit alongside data protection law; the job is to keep the record and keep it safe. Our guide to GDPR covers the wider principles.

Does a small business need an accident book?

If you normally have fewer than 10 people working at the same time on the same premises, and you are not a factory, mine or quarry, the social security duty to keep an accident book does not apply to you. But you are not off the hook:

• RIDDOR still requires you to record over-three-day injuries and reportable incidents;
• regulation 25(1) still requires you to investigate accidents employees notify to you;
• without records, you cannot spot patterns, review your risk assessment properly, or defend a claim.

For most small businesses, the simplest answer is to keep an accident book anyway. It meets the RIDDOR recording duty for injuries and gives employees an obvious way to give notice of an accident.

What should happen after an accident is recorded?

An entry is the start of the process, not the end. After each accident:

1. Check whether it is reportable under RIDDOR and, if so, report it within the deadline.
2. Investigate in proportion to the potential consequences, using the HSG245 approach.
3. Fix the immediate hazard and act on the underlying causes.
4. Review the risk assessment for the task or area involved.
5. Tell the people affected what has changed.
6. Notify your insurer if your policy requires it.
7. Review entries periodically for trends — the same corridor, task or time of day appearing repeatedly is a warning. Slips and trips are a common example; see our guide to slips, trips and falls.

Which courses cover accident reporting?

These three £9 courses work well together for managers, supervisors and first aiders, each with a verifiable certificate:

• Accident Reporting and Investigation — recording accidents, investigating causes and preventing a repeat.
• RIDDOR Awareness — what must be reported to the enforcing authority, by whom and by when.
• Workplace First Aid Awareness — first aid principles and what to do in the minutes after an accident.

Data Protection and GDPR Awareness is a useful alternative for anyone who handles accident records. Any three courses cost £18 with the pay-for-2-get-3 offer — add them to the cart and the discount applies automatically. These are awareness courses: CPD accredited, but not regulated qualifications, and not a substitute for a practical first aid at work certificate.

Frequently asked questions

Is it a legal requirement to have an accident book?

It is for employers who normally employ 10 or more people at the same time on or about the same premises, and for owners or occupiers of factories, mines and quarries. The duty comes from regulation 25 of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979, not from health and safety law.

How long do you have to keep accident book records?

At least 3 years from the date of the entry. RIDDOR records must also be kept for at least 3 years. Because personal injury claims can be brought up to three years after the date of injury or the date of knowledge, many employers keep records for longer.

Can an accident book be kept electronically?

Yes. Since 1993 the law has allowed the record to be kept in a book or by electronic means, provided it is in a form approved by the Secretary of State and is readily accessible to employees who need to make an entry.

What information must go in an accident book?

The injured person’s full name, address and occupation; the date and time of the accident; where it happened; the cause and nature of the injury; and, if someone else made the entry, their name, address and occupation.

Is an accident book entry the same as a RIDDOR report?

No. An accident book entry is an internal record. A RIDDOR report is a separate notification to the enforcing authority for certain serious incidents. The accident book can be used to meet RIDDOR’s record-keeping duty for injuries, but writing an entry does not report anything.

Does a small business need an accident book?

Not under social security law if fewer than 10 people normally work at the same time on the same premises and it is not a factory, mine or quarry. But it must still record over-three-day injuries and reportable incidents under RIDDOR, so keeping an accident book is the simplest way to comply.

Record it, learn from it

£9 per course. CPD accredited, 100% online, verifiable e-certificate. Pay for 2, get 3 — any 3 courses for £18.

This article is general information, not legal advice. It describes the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979, RIDDOR 2013 and related HSE guidance as they apply in Great Britain at the time of writing; limitation periods differ in Scotland, and Northern Ireland has its own legislation. Check your insurer’s requirements and take professional advice on specific cases. A Nexis CPD awareness course is CPD accredited but is not a regulated qualification.