Reference

Incident reporting, safety and compliance glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up in incident reporting, quality, ESG and compliance.

Audit trail

An audit trail is a time-ordered record of who did what, and when, to a piece of information. In incident reporting it shows every change to a record, from first report through investigation to sign-off, so you can prove what happened and when without relying on memory.

CAPA (corrective and preventive action)

CAPA stands for corrective and preventive action, a structured way to deal with a problem and stop it coming back. The corrective part fixes the issue you have found, and the preventive part addresses the underlying cause so similar issues are less likely in future.

Compliance

Compliance means meeting the legal duties, standards and internal rules that apply to your organisation. In a safety and quality context it covers things like following health and safety law, keeping required records, and being able to show evidence when a regulator or auditor asks.

Corrective action

A corrective action is a step taken to remove the cause of a problem that has already happened, so it does not recur. It is different from a quick fix or containment, which only deals with the immediate symptom.

CSRD

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is an EU law that requires many companies to report on their environmental, social and governance performance in a standardised way. It is EU-specific, though it also reaches some non-EU companies that do significant business in the EU.

Dangerous occurrence

A dangerous occurrence is a specified, high-potential event that must be reported even if nobody was hurt, such as the collapse of a structure or the failure of lifting equipment. In Great Britain the reportable categories are defined under RIDDOR.

ESG

ESG stands for environmental, social and governance, the three areas used to describe how responsibly an organisation operates beyond its finances. Workplace safety and incident data sit mainly under the social element, while reporting and oversight sit under governance.

Hazard

A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm, such as a chemical, a moving machine part, working at height or a stressful workload. A hazard is the source of possible harm, while risk is how likely that harm is and how serious it could be.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the national regulator for workplace health and safety in Great Britain. It sets guidance, enforces the law and is the body to which many serious workplace incidents are reported under RIDDOR.

Hierarchy of controls

The hierarchy of controls is an ordered way of choosing how to manage a risk, from most to least effective. It runs from eliminating the hazard, through substitution, engineering controls and administrative controls, down to personal protective equipment as a last line of defence.

Incident

An incident is an unplanned event that caused, or could have caused, harm to people, property, the environment or the business. It is a broad term that covers injuries, ill health, damage and near misses.

Incident report

An incident report is the record made when an incident or near miss occurs, capturing what happened, where, when, who was involved and any immediate action taken. A good report is the starting point for investigation, trend analysis and prevention.

Internal audit

An internal audit is a planned, independent check carried out by an organisation on its own processes to see whether they are being followed and are working. It is used to find gaps before an external auditor or regulator does, and to drive improvement.

ISO 9001

ISO 9001 is the international standard for quality management systems, published by the International Organization for Standardization. It sets out requirements for managing processes consistently, controlling non-conformances and improving over time.

ISO 45001

ISO 45001 is the international standard for occupational health and safety management systems. It gives organisations a framework for identifying hazards, controlling risks and improving safety performance, and it can be certified by an external body.

Lagging indicator

A lagging indicator measures outcomes that have already happened, such as the number of injuries or lost-time incidents. It tells you how you have performed, but only after the harm has occurred.

Leading indicator

A leading indicator measures the activities that help prevent harm, such as near misses reported, hazards closed out or training completed. It is forward-looking and gives an early signal before incidents occur.

Near miss

A near miss is an unplanned event that could have caused injury, illness or damage but did not, often by chance. Reporting near misses matters because they reveal the same underlying problems as actual incidents, with no one harmed yet.

Non-conformance

A non-conformance is a failure to meet a specified requirement, standard or procedure. In quality management it is logged, investigated and corrected, and repeated non-conformances often point to a deeper process problem.

Observation

An observation is a note of something seen in the workplace that could affect safety or quality, whether a concern or good practice. Observations are usually lower in severity than incidents, but capturing them helps spot trends early.

Permit to work

A permit to work is a formal, documented system that authorises specific high-risk tasks, such as hot work or entry into a confined space, only after the right controls are in place. It records who approved the work, the precautions taken and when the work is complete.

Personal protective equipment (PPE)

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is gear worn to protect a person from harm, such as gloves, eye protection, hearing protection or a hard hat. It is treated as a last line of defence, used after higher controls in the hierarchy have been applied.

Preventive action

A preventive action is a step taken to remove the cause of a potential problem before it occurs. Unlike a corrective action, which responds to something that has already happened, a preventive action is proactive.

RIDDOR

RIDDOR is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations, the UK law that requires certain workplace injuries, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences to be reported to the regulator. It is UK-specific and is enforced by the Health and Safety Executive in Great Britain.

Risk assessment

A risk assessment is a structured look at what could cause harm, so you can decide whether your precautions are enough or whether more should be done. It typically identifies the hazards, who might be harmed and how, and the controls needed to reduce the risk.

Root cause analysis

Root cause analysis is a method for finding the underlying reason an incident happened, rather than stopping at the immediate cause. Common techniques include asking why repeatedly and using a cause-and-effect diagram, so that fixes address the real source of the problem.

Safety triangle

The safety triangle is a model suggesting that for every serious injury there are many more minor injuries and a far larger number of near misses and unsafe conditions below it. It is used to argue that paying attention to low-level events helps prevent the rare serious ones, though the exact ratios vary and should be treated as illustrative.

Severity

Severity describes how serious the actual or potential harm from an incident is, often graded on a scale from minor to major or fatal. It is usually combined with likelihood to prioritise which risks and incidents to deal with first.

Toolbox talk

A toolbox talk is a short, informal safety briefing given to a team, usually before work starts, focused on a single topic relevant to the task or site. It is a practical way to keep safety front of mind and to share lessons from recent incidents.

Unsafe act / unsafe condition

An unsafe act is something a person does that increases the risk of harm, such as skipping a guard or taking a shortcut, while an unsafe condition is a hazard in the environment or equipment, such as a damaged ladder or a blocked exit. Spotting and recording both is a core part of preventing incidents.

Reference articles

Longer plain-English explainers on the topics behind the terms above.