Incident

This can be either a ‘near miss’ or an ‘undesired circumstance’.

• A near miss is “an event that, while not causing harm, has the potential to cause injury or ill health.” The term can also include dangerous occurrences.

• An undesired circumstance is “a set of conditions or circumstances that have the potential to cause injury or ill health”. This type of situation could readily arise due to an individual who has not been adequately trained to carry out an activity. (‘Investigating accidents and incidents’, HSE)

Schedule 2 of RIDDOR identifies dangerous occurrence events, which are known as a ‘reportable incidence’.

The difference between an incident and an accident is that an incident does not result in personal injury, whilst for an accident there is some form of personal injury incurred.