An incident report is a written record of what happened, to whom, when and where, what was done straight away and what will change. Write it from facts as soon as practicable after the event. It is an internal record: it is not an investigation, not an incident register entry, and not a notice to the regulator.
What counts as an incident?
For your own reporting, treat anything that hurt someone or could have hurt someone as reportable: injuries and illnesses, near misses, property or plant damage, spills and fires, and unsafe conditions that someone noticed. That scope is workplace practice, not a legal definition: the law defines a narrower group, called notifiable incidents, covered below. Our guide on reporting all injuries, incidents and near misses explains why the small ones matter too.
Sections 35 to 39 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), which deal with notifiable incidents, do not set a layout for your internal incident report, so build the form around the fields below.
Report, register, investigation, notice: four different jobs
| Document | What it does | When |
|---|---|---|
| Incident report | One form per event. Captures the facts, the people involved and the immediate actions. | Every incident, injury and near miss, as soon as practicable |
| Incident register | One line per report. Shows patterns and tracks whether follow-up actions are finished. | Updated each time a report comes in |
| Investigation | Works out why it happened and what to change. | Depends on how serious the event was or could have been |
| Notice to the regulator | Tells the regulator about a notifiable incident. | Immediately after you become aware of it (section 38 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)) |
A workers’ compensation claim is separate again. WorkCover Queensland is the workers’ compensation insurer, not the work health and safety regulator, and your incident report is not a claim. If a worker is injured, check what WorkCover Queensland needs from you and the worker. Our return to work plan guide covers the next stage.
What to put in an incident report
Keep the form to one or two pages so people actually finish it. These are the fields most workplaces use:
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Who | Full name and role of each person involved or hurt, and who is filling in the form. Include contractors and visitors. |
| When | Date and time of the incident, and the date and time it was reported. |
| Where | Site, area and the exact spot. |
| What happened | A short, factual account in order: what the person was doing, what changed, what happened. No guesses or blame. |
| Injury or damage | What part of the body was hurt and how, or what plant or property was damaged. Leave diagnosis to the medical professional. |
| Witnesses | Names, roles and what each saw. Ask them to write their own account. |
| Immediate actions | First aid given, who attended, whether an ambulance was called, how the area was made safe, who was told and when. |
| Notifiable? | A yes or no box with the reason, ticked by a supervisor or manager (see the next section). |
| Contributing factors | First impressions only: the task, plant, environment and procedures. The full analysis belongs in the investigation. |
| Follow up | Actions, who is responsible, due date, and the date each was finished. |
| Sign-off | Name, signature and date of the person reporting and of the manager who reviewed it. |
A short worked example
This is an invented example to show the level of detail, not a real event.
- Who: Worker A (labourer); witness Worker B (storeperson).
- When: Tuesday, about 10:15 am; reported at 10:20 am.
- Where: Workshop floor, near the wash bay door.
- What happened: Worker A was carrying a box of fittings to the shelf. The floor near the door was wet, Worker A’s foot slid and Worker A fell onto the left wrist. Nothing was damaged.
- Injury: Pain and swelling in the left wrist. No head strike.
- Immediate actions: The supervisor gave first aid (ice and a support bandage), dried the floor and placed a wet floor sign. Worker A saw a doctor for a check and told the supervisor the outcome the same day.
- Notifiable? No. The injury did not need immediate treatment as an in-patient in hospital and was not any other injury listed in section 36 of the Act, and no dangerous incident under section 37 occurred.
- Contributing factors (first view): Water carried from the wash bay; no mat at the door; the box blocked the view of the floor.
- Follow up: Fit a drain mat at the door (supervisor, end of week); add a floor check to the wash bay closing routine (supervisor, next toolbox meeting).
Notice what the example leaves out: no opinion about whose fault it was and no medical conclusion. Had the fall led to immediate treatment as an in-patient in hospital, the same form would be the start of a notification to the regulator.
Is the incident notifiable?
This is the decision that carries a legal deadline, so put the question on the form. Under section 35 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), a notifiable incident is the death of a person, a serious injury or illness of a person, or a dangerous incident.
- Serious injury or illness (section 36): includes an injury or illness needing immediate treatment as an in-patient in a hospital, or immediate treatment for an amputation, a serious head injury, a serious eye injury, a serious burn, degloving or scalping, a spinal injury, the loss of a bodily function or serious lacerations, or medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance.
- Dangerous incident (section 37): an incident at a workplace that exposes a worker or any other person to a serious risk from an immediate or imminent exposure to something on the Act’s list, such as an uncontrolled escape or spillage of a substance, an uncontrolled explosion or fire, a fall or release of something from a height, or the collapse of a structure or an excavation. Some near misses can fall into this group.
When in doubt, ask the person who handles WHS for the business, and read our full guide on notifiable incidents in Queensland.
If it is notifiable: what the law adds
- Notify immediately. Under section 38 of the Act, a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) must ensure the regulator is notified immediately after becoming aware that a notifiable incident arising out of the business has occurred. The notice must be given by the fastest possible means, by telephone or in writing. In Queensland the regulator is Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, part of the Office of Industrial Relations. Not sure if you are a PCBU? See what is a PCBU.
- Written notice. If you notify by telephone, you must give the details the regulator asks for, and if the regulator requires it, give a written notice within 48 hours of that requirement being made. A written notice must be in a form, or contain the details, approved by the regulator.
- Keep the record. Section 38(7) requires a PCBU to keep a record of each notifiable incident for at least 5 years from the day notice is given to the regulator.
- Preserve the site. Under section 39, the person with management or control of the workplace must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the site (including any plant, substance, structure or thing associated with the incident) is not disturbed until an inspector arrives or directs otherwise. Section 39(3) allows action to help an injured person, to remove a deceased person, to make the site safe or minimise the risk of a further notifiable incident, or action associated with a police investigation or permitted by an inspector or the regulator.
Electrical incidents follow a different route. Under section 4 of schedule 1 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), the Act does not apply to the extent the Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld) applies. Section 292 of the Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld) requires a PCBU to ensure the regulator is notified immediately after becoming aware of a serious electrical incident or dangerous electrical event arising out of the business, and to keep a record for at least 5 years after notice is given. Section 11 of the Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld) says a serious electrical incident is an incident involving electrical equipment in which a person is killed by electricity, or receives a shock or injury from electricity and is treated by or under the supervision of a doctor, or receives a shock or injury from electricity at high voltage (whether or not a doctor treats it). Add an “electrical?” tick box to your form, because electrical incidents go to the Electrical Safety Office.
After the report: what happens next
- Review it the same day. A supervisor or manager checks the form and answers the “notifiable?” question. Same-day review is practice; for notifiable incidents the legal timing is “immediately”.
- Add it to the register. One line per report, with the date, type, severity, whether it was notifiable and the actions with owners and due dates. Our incident register guide and the free incident register (Excel) show one way to set it up.
- Decide how deep to investigate. A minor slip may need a quick check of the cause; a serious near miss deserves a full investigation. Our guide to workplace incident investigation sets out the steps.
- Fix the cause, then review the control. Section 38 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld) requires a duty holder to review and, as necessary, revise the control measures implemented under that Regulation, including where a control measure does not control the risk it was implemented to control, and it gives the example of a notifiable incident occurring because of the risk. In practice, review any control an incident shows did not work.
- Close the loop. Tell the people involved what was done, or they stop reporting.
Tips for writing a good report
- Write facts, not conclusions. “The floor was wet” is a fact; “the cleaner was careless” is an opinion.
- Do not edit a signed report. Add a dated note if something new comes out.
- Store reports where only the people who need them can open them. They hold personal and sometimes health information.
These tips are common workplace practice, not requirements of the Act.
Templates to start from
Use the free incident report form template (Word) as a starting point and adapt it to your own site. Pair it with the free hazard report form for problems that have not yet hurt anyone. To set out who does what when something goes wrong, see the Incident Management Policy and Procedure template. Also read why you must report and record all workplace injuries.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check the current law or talk to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland for your situation.
Templates for this job
Ready-to-edit Word and Excel templates for Queensland workplaces.
