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What Happens If An Employee Did Not Report An Injury? Find Out How To Claims And If You Are Eligible To Claim

By Lewis Cobain. Last Updated 17th July 2023. This guide explains how to make a compensation claim if an employee did not report an injury. If you have had an accident at work and not reported it, you could have issues with making a personal injury claim.

Injured at work

Injured at work

However, several circumstances might have prevented you from reporting an accident at work. If you have not done so, in certain circumstances, you could still make personal injury claims even if, as an employee, you did not report an injury to your employer.

There are many different ways you may have been injured at work.

Whether you were injured by stock falling from shelving as it was stacked incorrectly or via a trip on a hazard that should have been removed from your work area, you could, in some cases, still have a claim even if you did not report the injury at work.

Further information

Within this guide, we look at the situations that might mean an employee did not report an injury. We’ll take you through the reasons someone might not have been reporting incidents at work and explain the circumstances that could lead to a claim, even if the work accident was not reported.

In addition to this, we’ll take you through the HSE’s rules on work accident and injury reporting, as well as telling you how a personal injury solicitor could assist with a claim if an employee did not report an injury promptly, or at all, after being injured in an accident.

Click on the sections below to be directed to the information you’re looking for, and if you have any questions, then do not hesitate to call us on 0800 073 8804 for further legal advice.

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A Guide To The Reporting Of Accidents At Work

This guide covers what you need to know if you are an employee who did not report an accident that resulted in you suffering some injury. Reporting incidents at work is important and is required by law. However, if you are an employee that did not report injury and wish to make an injury claim against your employer, then you might think you wouldn’t have a chance. This is not necessarily the case, however. Some incidences allow you to claim not reporting the incident at the time.

Accidents at work causing injury could include slips, trips, falls, and machinery accidents, as well as manual handling accidents and work-related illnesses and conditions. If your employer is to blame, for instance, because they failed to take measures to lower risks of injury, or they failed to give you relevant training or equipment to protect your health, then even if an employee did not report an injury at the time, there could still be a chance you might have a personal injury claim for compensation for your injuries.

Within this guide, we go over important facts about reporting illnesses, accidents and injury at work, answer questions such as ‘Can you discipline an employee for not reporting an injury?’ explain what to do after an accident at work, and give information on how Legal Expert could help, even if you are an employee that did not report injury, but suffered due to a workplace accident.

Should All Types Of Injury Should Be Recorded or Reported?

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) is a piece of legislation that sets out rules on what types of injury should be reported to the Health & Safety Executive.

These include:

  • Incidents that result in a death
  • Occupational diseases that workers have suffered
  • Incidents that result in specified injuries
  • Incidents that incapacitate a worker for more than 7 days
  • Non-fatal accidents that lead to the hospitalisation of a non-working member of the public
  • Incidents where a worker has been hospitalised or lost consciousness due to gas
  • Various dangerous occurrences or near miss incidents that could have harmed people

The consequences of not reporting to RIDDOR can be serious. Your employer could face a large fine. It is their duty to report the above injuries.

You can reach out to one of our advisers for free information about the actions you could take if your accident at work was not reported or recorded adequately.

Why Was The Accident Or Injury Not Reported?

There could be many different reasons why a person might not have reported an accident or injury. However, the main reasons could be either that the person was incapacitated at the time and unable to report or that they were not aware of an injury until a later time. Whatever the reason an employee did not report an injury, it could still be worth looking into whether a claim could still be viable.

What Are The Legal Requirements For Reporting An Accident Or Injury?

As per the above, it is legally required for employers to record incidents, whether they are big or small, or instances of ill-health at work. The following criteria apply:

  • An employer should record every reportable accident, injury, illness, dangerous incident, work-related death or specified over the 7-day injury.
  • These records should be kept in an accident book, file, computer file or log (written)
  • RIDDOR reports are completed online through the HSE
  • Risk assessments should take into account patterns in accidents and/or injuries
  • Records should be kept up-to-date and in an organised fashion
  • RIDDOR records should be kept confidential and be stored securely

Rules about RIDDOR also require employers to:

  • Keep an accident book if there are more than 10 staff
  • Factories, quarries and mines must keep an accident book
  • RIDDOR records have to be retained for 3 years minimum from the last incident recorded in the book, but it is advisable to keep these for longer, up to 5-6 years
  • There is a requirement to report RIDDOR incidents within 10 days of the incident.

How Should You Report An Accident At Work?

According to the HSE, this is the information that must be contained in the accident report:

  • The reporting date
  • The location, time and date of the incident
  • The personal details concerning the person involved – this should include their job title and name etc.
  • The description of any injuries or occurrences

How Long Do I Have To Report An Accident?

It is obviously important to record an accident at work as soon as possible. For RIDDOR incidents, they must be reported within 10 days of the date of the accident. In terms of the personal injury claims time limit, it might be worth noting that claims could be made up to 3 years after the incident date, but it could be best to act as quickly as possible, as it could make gathering evidence easier. Hence why it’s vital to move fast if an employee did not report an injury, but you wish to claim.

Failure To Report An Accident – Can I Still Claim?

You may be wondering if you could still claim even if there was a failure to report an accident in the logbook.

Reporting an accident at work, whether in the logbook or to RIDDOR, can provide helpful evidence for a claim and can also help show employers if there are areas of health and safety they need to improve on in the workplace. Accident reporting at work is generally an employer’s responsibility, and there are some types of accidents or injuries that must always be reported to RIDDOR by law.

However, if there was a failure to make such a report, you could still potentially claim. You could use other types of evidence, such as CCTV footage, photographs of the accident site or your injury, and witness statements collected by a solicitor that corroborate your version of events.

If you are able to prove you were injured due to employer negligence by other means, you may not always need a logbook accident report to help with your claim.

Get in touch with our advisors today to find out how you could still prove the validity of your claim after a failure to report an accident.

Could I Still Be Eligible To Claim?

I did not report an accident at work – could I still claim?

If an employee did not report an injury, it does not mean that injury did not occur. If you were incapacitated and were taken from the accident scene, you may assume that someone left behind would have recorded the injury in the accident book, but this may not be the case. Evidence in these cases could be proof from the ambulance staff that removed you from the premises.

Should your employer have failed to go ahead and report workplace accidents to RIDDOR or other notifiable parties when they were aware of the accident, but if an employee did not report the injury, then they may be in breach of their duty to notify the relevant parties. If your employer has failed to do this, they could be fined, which could strengthen your claim.

If, however, you did not realise an injury had stemmed from an accident or incident at work, then you could use your medical records to help prove the case. Your doctor would usually take notes of your appointments with them and record what you have told them. Once there’s a connection between your condition and your work, this could become evidence in your notes. So, even if the employee did not report an injury, this information could form the basis for your claim.

Accident At Work Injury Statistics

Now that we’ve discussed the process of reporting an injury at work, you might be curious to know the latest health and safety at work statistics.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) compiles helpful accident at work statistics based on reports made to them by employers under RIDDOR. These statistics show the following:

  • There were 61,713 non-fatal employee injuries reported under RIDDOR in 2021/22.
  • 135 workers were killed in work-related accidents in 2022/23.
  • Slips, trips or falls on the same level accounted for 30% of non-fatal injuries to employees in 2021/22.

It’s important to note that not all instances of accidents that have been reported to HSE mean employer negligence has occurred.

For more guidance on when to report a workplace accident, you can get in touch with an advisor for free at any time. They can also advise on when you could be eligible to make a personal injury claim following an accident at work.

Workplace Accident Compensation Calculator

When making claims against your employer, various injuries might be involved. Although you may have already sought information from a personal injury claims calculator, these guidelines come from the judicial college. You should note, however, that these are only guidelines. So, your award may vary depending on the specifics of your case.

Edit
Injury Severity Notes Compensation
Leg Amputation (iv) One leg is amputated below the knee. The injury is not complicated. Factors such as associated psychiatric problems, phantom pains and the success of any prosthetics will be considered. £97,980 to £132,990
Hand Serious Serious damage to both hands with related loss of function and cosmetic disability. £55,820 to £84,570
Ankle Very Severe Examples include: transmalleolar fracture with extensive soft tissue damage or bilateral ankle fractures with degeneration of the joints. There will be some deformity. £50,060 to £69,700
Pelvis/Hip Moderate (i) Injury to the pelvis or hip is significant but any long-term disability is not major. Future risk is not great. £26,590 to £39,170
Wrist (B) Some useful movement remains but the disability is permanent and serious. £24,500 to £39,170
Bowels (E) A penetrative injury that causes some permanent damage. However, the claimant will eventually return to normal control and function. £12,590 to
£24,480
Facial (B) Many fractures of the facial bones where there will be some form of permanent deformity. £14,900 to £23,950
Work-Related Limb Disorders Minor This could include vibration white finger. Symptoms will only manifest in a few fingers with minor effect on leisure or work. £2,990 to
£8,640
Back Minor (iii) Surgery is not required for a full recovery to take place between 3 months and a year. £2,450 to £4,350

No Win No Fee Employee Injury Claims

You may be able to make a No Win No Fee employee did not report an injury claim if your solicitor works to this payment structure. This means that you would not have to pay a fee upfront for retaining the services of your lawyer. Instead, your lawyer’s fee would be taken as a percentage of your settlement, so you would not be out of pocket. All of our personal injury solicitors work on this basis, so you could learn how to claim without paying a penny out of your own pocket.

Contact Legal Expert

If you’re now ready to consider making an injury claim, and you think you might fit the criteria, why not call 0800 073 8804 to talk to one of our expert advisors. We’d be happy to go over your case and advise whether we think you’d have a claim. We can provide a personal injury lawyer on a No Win No Fee basis who would be willing to work to prove your case, even if an employee did not report a work injury.

Alternatively, you may wish to fill out the online contact form or email us at info@legalexpert.co.uk for further assistance.

Related Guides

Below, you can find a list of guides which may tell you more about accident at work claims:

Employee Did Not Report An Injury FAQs

Do I receive my pay if I suffer an injury at work?

So, your employer should still pay you SSP (Statutory Sick Pay), but you may not receive full pay.

How long can you claim for an injury at work?

You have up to three full years after the accident happens.

Can you miss work due to injuries?

Yes. In fact, your doctor might insist that you take significant time off to recover from your injuries.

Can I make a personal injury claim myself?

You could, but it enhances the chances of your claim winning if you work with a personal injury lawyer.

Should I always report an injury?

Absolutely, because this is proof about you suffering harm via a workplace accident.

And should I record an accident even if I don’t suffer any injuries?

Yes. That’s because it is against the law for an employer not to record an accident, regardless of the severity level.

Is stress a reportable injury?

Officially, RIDDOR does not classify stress as a reportable injury. But that doesn’t mean that this couldn’t make up part of your personal injury claim.

What happens if the accident doesn’t go into the employer’s record book?

The firm in question might receive a significant fine, and the responsible person may receive a punishment too.

Thank you for reading our guide on making a claim even if an employee did not report an injury.

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    • Patrick Mallon legal expert author

      Patrick is a Grade A solicitor having qualified in 2005. He's an an expert in accident at work and public liability claims and is currently our head of the EL/PL department. Get in touch today for free to see how we can help you.

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