Site Accident Book: Legal Requirements and Best Practice UK

Every UK workplace with ten or more employees is legally required to keep an accident book. But the legal obligation extends further than many employers realise — and the way accident records are maintained has significant implications for compliance with data protection law, RIDDOR reporting obligations, and liability in personal injury claims. This guide explains exactly what the law requires, how records must be kept, and what best practice looks like beyond the minimum legal standard.

The Legal Requirement for an Accident Book

The Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979 require employers with ten or more employees to keep an accident book on their premises. The book must be readily accessible to employees and must be used to record details of any accident at work that results in personal injury.

This obligation is separate from — and in addition to — the duty to report certain incidents under RIDDOR. The accident book captures all workplace injuries. RIDDOR reporting applies only to injuries meeting specific severity thresholds.

For construction sites, the accident book requirement applies regardless of the number of workers on site, because the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 impose additional record-keeping obligations that effectively require incident recording from the outset of any project.

What Must Be Recorded?

Every entry in the accident book must include the full name and address of the injured person, their occupation, the date and time of the accident, the place where the accident occurred, a description of what happened and how it happened, a description of the nature of the injury, and the name and address of any witness. Where the injured person is recording the entry themselves, they must sign it. Where someone else records it on their behalf, both parties should sign.

The entry should be made as soon as practicable after the accident — not days later. Delayed entries reduce the evidential value of the record and may be treated with scepticism by courts, insurers, and enforcement authorities.

Data Protection and the Accident Book

A significant change in accident book requirements arose from the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. Traditional accident books — where all entries were visible to anyone opening the book — are no longer compliant, because each entry contains personal data about the injured person that should not be visible to other employees.

The current requirement is that accident records are kept in a format where individual entries are confidential. The standard approach is to use an accident book with tear-out or detachable pages — each entry is removed after completion and stored securely, leaving no personal data visible to subsequent users of the book. Digital accident reporting systems that restrict access by role are also compliant.

Accident records must be retained for at least three years from the date of the entry. For accidents involving children or young persons, records must be retained until the individual reaches 21 years of age, or for three years, whichever is longer.

RIDDOR Reporting and Its Relationship to the Accident Book

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 require employers to report certain categories of workplace incident to the HSE. Reportable incidents include fatalities, specified injuries — such as fractures, amputations, and crush injuries — incapacitation injuries where the worker is unable to work for more than seven consecutive days, occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences.

All RIDDOR-reportable incidents must also be recorded in the accident book. But the accident book must capture all workplace injuries — not just those that are RIDDOR-reportable. A minor cut or bruise that does not meet RIDDOR thresholds still requires an accident book entry.

RIDDOR records — the reports made to the HSE and any supporting documentation — must be kept for at least three years.

Near Miss Records

A near miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury but had the potential to do so. Near misses are not legally required to be recorded in the accident book — the accident book is for actual injuries. However, maintaining a separate near miss register is strongly recommended best practice and is required under many principal contractor and client management systems.

A culture of near miss reporting is one of the strongest indicators of a well-managed safety system. Near miss records help identify hazards before they cause injuries and demonstrate proactive safety management to insurers and enforcement authorities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can accident records be kept digitally? Yes. Digital accident recording systems are fully acceptable provided individual entries are secure, access is restricted to authorised persons, and records can be produced in hard copy on request. Many organisations now use dedicated health and safety management software that records accidents, generates RIDDOR reports, and manages retention periods automatically.

What happens if an employee refuses to report an accident? Employers cannot compel employees to report accidents, but they should make clear through their health and safety policy that reporting is expected and required. An unreported accident that later results in a personal injury claim is significantly harder to defend — the absence of a contemporaneous record is a serious evidential disadvantage.

Who is responsible for maintaining the accident book? The employer is responsible for ensuring an accident book is available and maintained. On multi-employer construction sites, each employer is responsible for their own employees' accident records. The principal contractor typically also maintains a site-level accident and incident register covering all workers on site.

Key Takeaways

• Employers with ten or more employees must keep an accident book — entries must be made for all workplace injuries, not just serious ones.
• Each entry must include the injured person's details, the date, location, description of the accident, and the nature of the injury.
• Data protection law requires accident records to be kept confidentially — traditional books with visible entries are no longer compliant.
• Accident records must be retained for at least three years — or until the injured person reaches 21 if they were a child at the time.
• RIDDOR-reportable incidents must be reported to the HSE and also recorded in the accident book — these are separate obligations.
• Near miss registers are best practice and are required by many principal contractors and client management systems.