Accidents & incidents

Imperial College London is committed to maintaining a safe and healthy environment for all staff, students, and visitors. As an employer, Imperial has a legal duty under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations to implement effective systems for managing health and safety risks.

A key component of this responsibility is the thorough investigation of accidents and incidents, including both immediate and underlying causes. This ensures that appropriate remedial actions are taken and that valuable lessons are learned. Such investigations are a vital part of the University’s reactive safety management and complement its proactive safety systems.

Imperial’s Health and Safety teams work closely with Departments to ensure compliance with these regulations, maintain robust reporting systems, and promote a culture of continuous improvement in safety practices.

Building Safety Act

Incidents involving structural failure, fire safety risks, or defects that could cause death or serious injury to multiple people, must be reported under the Building Safety Act 2022. This includes issues such as fire outbreaks, cladding failures, or inadequate fire protection systems.

Environmental

The uncontrolled and unplanned release of materials, including chemical, biological or radiological, beyond the confines of a laboratory or building into the wider environment e.g. directly into water drains, air or soil. with the potential to cause harm to health and/or the environment.

Spills or releases that occur within laboratories or buildings should be reported as Health and Safety incidents.

Health & Safety

An unplanned event or situation that has resulted, or could have resulted, in harm or injury to yourself or others, or disruption to safe working practices. This includes:

• Work related injuries or illnesses, including mental health, sustained by staff, students, contractors or visitors
• Non-work related injuries or illnesses, including mental health, relating to staff, students, contractors or visitors.
• Near misses, events that could have caused harm but did not, either by chance or timely intervention
• Unsafe conditions or behaviours that pose a risk to health and safety, such as misuse of equipment, failure or malfunctioning of engineering controls such as fume cupboards.
• Spills or releases of substances within laboratories or buildings

All H&S incidents, regardless of severity, should be reported promptly to ensure appropriate investigation, corrective action, and prevention of recurrence

Property Damage

Damage to University property, buildings, infrastructure or equipment that could have an impact on Health and Safety but has not caused an injury or resulted in a near miss yet. Property damage must also be reported as a defect so the issue can be resolved.

Security

An unplanned or intentional event that poses a threat to the safety, wellbeing, or security of individuals, property, or information within the workplace or learning environment. this includes:

• Unauthorised access to restricted or sensitive areas (e.g. labs, data centres, or hazardous material storage)
• Theft or vandalism of equipment, materials, or personal belongings
• Aggressive or threatening behaviour toward staff, students, or visitors
• Suspicious packages or persons on campus
• Breach of physical security systems, such as broken locks, forced entry, or disabled alarm

Sporting Injuries

An event resulting in injury during participation in a sporting activity organised by the university. Events will include both minor injuries requiring the administration of first aid and more significant incidents requiring hospitalisation.

If you are involved in or witness an incident complete the online incident report form as soon as possible. The form is available via CoreStream, which can also be accessed from the front page of the Safety Department webpage. If the person involved in an accident is unable to complete the form, a supervisor or colleague should submit the report on their behalf.

Refer to the CoreStream Incident Reporting Guide for step by step instructions on how to complete the form.

What happens when I report an incident?

Once you submit your report, it is automatically forwarded to the Safety Department, which assigns it for investigation. The investigator will identify both the immediate and root causes of the incident and agree on corrective actions with the responsible individuals across Imperial. They may contact you to gather additional information needed to determine appropriate controls and prevent similar incidents in the future.

In addition to internal procedures, Imperial must comply with several statutory reporting obligations:

1. RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations)
   Certain types of injuries, occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences must be reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). This includes incidents such as serious injuries, near misses involving dangerous substances, and work-related illnesses.

2. Genetically Modified Organisms (Contained Use) Regulations
   Incidents involving genetically modified organisms (GMOs) must be reported in accordance with these regulations, which are designed to ensure the safe use and containment of GMOs in research and teaching environments.
   
   
3. Building Safety Act 2022
   Under this legislation, the College is required to report specific fire safety and structural incidents to the Building Safety Regulator. This is particularly relevant for buildings classified as higher-risk under the Act. Qualifying incidents must be reported to the Building Safety Regulator within 10 days of identification.
   
   
4. Radiological
   Radiological incidents including the theft, loss of or damage to sealed radioactive sources, unplanned release of open radioactive materials and resulting contamination, failure of shielding components, or any failure of engineering controls such as interlocks and emergency stop devices on a radiation generator such as an x-ray device may need to be reported. Legislation varies depending upon the radiological source, but principally, the Ionising Radiations Regulations 2017 and Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016 (as amended) are applicable.

The Safety Department is responsible for reporting incidents that fall within the definitions above to the relevant regulator.

February 2004: First published.
March 2005: Amended.
December 2006: Amended (to include new definition of Near Miss).
August 2010: Amended (to include details of new e-mail address.
October 2011: Amended (implementation of Salus online reporting).
April 2012: Amended (change to RIDDOR with regard to over-seven-day reporting).
October 2013: Amended (changes to RIDDOR with regard to simplification of reporting requirements introduced on 1 October).
October 2019: System configuration slightly modified, and moved to an external cloud server to facilitate quicker software fixes.
February 2025: Amended.
July 2025: Implementation of Incident Reporting in CoreStream