Employee was walking up stairs to use "rest room", his foot "slipped" off step and he fell injuring wrist and knocking out some teeth. No contributing factors (boots, contamination or issues with the step). Firstly, would this be regarded as an "at work" accident (what is the perception of "at work", carrying out duties or just being "on site". We had an accident a couple of years ago where an employee cut their hand whilst preparing lunch - we did not count it as "at work") and secondly is it RIDDOR reportable?

In essence, your question is this: Do you think this is a "life in general" sort of accident or should we regard it as work-related and hence potentially a RIDDOR case? Given the HSE's focus on slips and trips, I think it would be hard to justify an argument that there wasn't a workplace angle to this. RIDDOR reportability is not conditional on the findings of your investigation. As far as "at work" goes, people you (or your contractors) employ are always at work whilst on your site or going about your business unless you've got a really convincing reason for saying otherwise. Your example of the knife accident just might be capable of exclusion if, say, it was his own knife and he was making his own sandwich with his own bread and fillings because he hadn't had time to do so before he left the house that morning because his kids were playing up (etc. get the picture?). This is a different situation to the child being injured in a nursery case that is in another strand.

I do not consider this to be a RIDDOR! Yes, the employee was at work, but assuming his job isn’t “eating and drinking” then walking to the rest room isn’t part of his activities connected with his work! Walking (and going up-stairs) in my opinion, is something that we do in everyday life, and yes, occasionally we trip or fall, but (again assuming the stairs are in good condition) it can’t be work related. The HSE campaign around “slips, trips and falls” was, and still is, concerned with trip hazards that can be avoided, not simply tripping up an adequate set of stairs. By all means record it in the accident book, and massage your figures however way you like, but it’s not reportable.

The accident happened in the work premises and is, therefore, a work-related accident. From the information provided, it does not appear to be RIDDOR reportable. It is however important that any outcome / lessons learnt from your investigation into the accident is relayed to the rest of the workforce to try and prevent a similar incident occurring again.