CSCS Accident Reporting (RIDDOR) & First Aid Questions
What to report, near misses and first-aid arrangements.
Accident Reporting (RIDDOR) & First Aid — practice questions (untimed, instant feedback)
- 8 questions · pass mark 90%
- Untimed practice — you see the correct answer immediately after each question.
- Some questions need more than one answer — these are clearly marked.
All 8 Accident Reporting (RIDDOR) & First Aid questions and answers
These are the same 8 questions as the practice test above, written out with the correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read them through when you want to revise rather than test yourself.
1. Why is an accident investigation mainly carried out?
Answer: To establish the causes so the same thing can be prevented in future
- A) To establish the causes so the same thing can be prevented in future (correct answer)
- B) To work out how much the damage cost
- C) To decide who was to blame
- D) To note down the injuries suffered
Why: Investigations exist to find the cause and stop a repeat, not to apportion blame.
2. You have seen a serious accident happen on your site. What should you do?
Answer: Report to your supervisor that you witnessed it
- A) Ask your workmates for their opinion on what to do
- B) Keep quiet so that nobody gets into trouble
- C) Ring the nearest hospital
- D) Report to your supervisor that you witnessed it (correct answer)
Why: Report what you saw to your supervisor so the accident is dealt with and recorded properly.
3. You cut your hand while eating lunch on site. What should you do?
Answer: Report it and get medical treatment if needed
- A) Report it and get medical treatment if needed (correct answer)
- B) Get treatment but do not report it
- C) Treat it yourself and carry on — it is not serious enough
- D) Deal with it yourself — only accidents during work need reporting
Why: Any injury on site should be reported and treated if needed, even during a break.
4. Who normally records a workplace accident in the accident book?
Answer: A responsible person such as the first aider or supervisor
- A) Only the injured person
- B) Only the site manager
- C) A responsible person such as the first aider or supervisor (correct answer)
- D) The nearest witness
Why: A responsible person records the accident; note that RIDDOR duties fall on the employer.
5. How quickly should a serious accident be reported to the HSE?
Answer: Without delay
- A) Within 2 hours
- B) Within 24 hours
- C) Without delay (correct answer)
- D) Within 3 days
Why: Serious (RIDDOR-reportable) incidents must be reported without delay.
6. What is the crucial information on an accident report form?
Answer: The details of the accident and the injuries
- A) The injured person's medical history
- B) The details of the accident and the injuries (correct answer)
- C) The weather at the time
- D) Your opinion on the cause
Why: The form records what happened and the injuries sustained.
7. Why should near misses be recorded?
Answer: To help prevent future accidents
- A) To assign blame
- B) To help prevent future accidents (correct answer)
- C) To lower insurance premiums
- D) For statistics only
Why: Near misses reveal hazards so the next, worse incident can be prevented.
8. What is RIDDOR?
Answer: A legal requirement to report certain injuries and incidents
- A) A type of emergency response
- B) A legal requirement to report certain injuries and incidents (correct answer)
- C) A first-aid protocol
- D) A safety-equipment maker
Why: RIDDOR is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations.
What this topic covers in the CSCS test
RIDDOR (the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) makes employers and others in charge of work premises report serious work-related incidents to the enforcing authority. The test checks that you know the split between the accident book, which records everything, and RIDDOR, which catches the serious cases. It also checks the human part: you tell your supervisor, and the investigation looks for the cause, not for someone to blame.
- What RIDDOR is and who the 'responsible person' is
- Reportable injuries: deaths, specified injuries, over-seven-day incapacitation, non-workers taken to hospital
- Reporting timescales: without delay, the 10 day limit and the 15 day limit
- The accident book, the over-three-day recording rule and the 10 employee threshold
- Reportable occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences
- First-aid arrangements: needs assessment, first-aiders, appointed persons, restocking the kit
- Why near misses are recorded and why accidents are investigated
Key facts worth memorising
- Over seven days is reported
- Report where a worker is off work or unable to do normal duties for more than 7 consecutive days, counting weekends and rest days but not the day of the accident, and do it within 15 days.
- Over three days is only recorded
- More than 3 consecutive days off normal duties goes in the accident book under social security law, but does not need reporting to HSE.
- Serious incidents go without delay
- Deaths, specified injuries to workers, non-workers taken directly to hospital for treatment and dangerous occurrences must be notified without delay, with the report received within 10 days.
- What counts as a specified injury
- All fractures except fingers, thumbs and toes, amputations, likely permanent loss of sight, crush injuries to head or torso, burns over 10% of the body or damaging eyes, respiratory system or vital organs, scalping needing hospital treatment, loss of consciousness from head injury or asphyxia, and any injury from working in an enclosed space that causes hypothermia or heat-induced illness, or needs resuscitation or more than 24 hours in hospital.
- Only the responsible person reports
- Reports come from the employer, some self-employed people or the person in control of the premises, not from the injured worker or a member of the public.
- The accident book threshold
- An employer who normally employs 10 or more people at the same time on or about the same premises, or who owns or occupies a mine, quarry or factory, must keep an accident book, and keep the records for at least 3 years. HSE's guidance says more than 10, but the regulation itself says 10 or more, so an employer with exactly 10 is caught.
What people get wrong
Every accident on site has to be reported to HSE.
RIDDOR bites only when an accident is work related and results in a reportable injury, disease or dangerous occurrence. Everything else is recorded instead, and that record still matters.
I should report my own injury to HSE.
Reports come from the responsible person, normally your employer. Your job is to tell your supervisor and make sure it is written down.
A cut during a lunch break has nothing to do with work, so why report it.
Report any injury on site and get treatment if you need it. Whether it meets RIDDOR is your employer's judgement, and they cannot make it if nobody tells them.
Investigations are about deciding who was at fault.
They find the cause so the same thing cannot happen again. HSE is explicit that reportability does not depend on finding blame.
Answering these questions in the test
The safe answer here is nearly always 'tell your supervisor and make sure it is recorded'. Two numbers do a lot of work: more than 3 consecutive days off normal duties is recorded, more than 7 is reported, and the over-seven-day report is due within 15 days. Asked how quickly a serious accident goes to HSE, the answer is without delay. Asked why an accident is investigated, the answer is to find the cause and prevent a repeat.
Sources
Written from the following. Where a figure could not be verified against one of these, it has been left out rather than approximated — our sources and methodology explains how we date and re-check them. Spotted something wrong? Report an error and we will fix it.
Topics that come up alongside accident reporting (riddor) & first aid
Ready for the real thing?
When you are scoring 90% or better here, take a timed 50-question mock under exam conditions, then book your CITB HS&E test.