Health, safety and environment
The same field as EHS: incidents, permits, audits, environmental records.
EHS softwareHSE software · the UK records
HSE software: the UK health and safety records it must hold, and for how long
HSE software holds the records UK health and safety law asks an employer to keep: risk assessments, RIDDOR reports and records, and COSHH assessments and monitoring.
Each record has its own trigger and its own retention clock, from 15 days to report an injury to 40 years for personal exposure monitoring.
For the EHS category as a whole — permits to work, audits, ISO 45001 and where EHS meets ESG — see EHS software.
Two meanings
What does “HSE software” mean? Two things in the UK
In the UK, HSE is both an acronym for health, safety and environment and the name of the regulator, the Health and Safety Executive.
Buyers searching for HSE software usually want both: a tool that runs the programme and holds the records an inspector can ask for.
This page starts from the records, because they are the part the law fixes.
“HSE software”
The HSE regime’s records
What the Health and Safety Executive’s rules make an employer record and keep.
This pageThe retention clocks
How long must each record be kept? Four clocks
| Record | Trigger | Clock | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Risk assessment findings | Five or more employees | Kept current; reviewed on change | MHSWR reg 3(3), (6) |
| RIDDOR report | Injury keeping someone off work more than seven days | Within 15 days of the accident | RIDDOR reg 4(2) |
| RIDDOR record | Reportable incident or over-three-day injury | At least 3 years | RIDDOR reg 12(2) |
| COSHH monitoring, personal | Monitoring of identifiable employees | At least 40 years | COSHH reg 10(5)(a) |
| COSHH monitoring, other | Other monitoring | At least 5 years | COSHH reg 10(5)(b) |
The clocks differ by an order of magnitude, so a tool must hold retention per record type, not one policy for everything.
Forty years outlasts most software contracts, which makes the export test the most important question in any demo.
RIDDOR
What must RIDDOR software capture? Recorded is not reported
RIDDOR 2013 has been in force since 1 October 2013, and it separates recording from reporting.
An injury that keeps someone off routine work for more than three consecutive days is recorded; more than seven days is reported, within 15 days of the accident at the latest.
A record holds the date and time, the person’s full name, occupation and injury, the place and a brief description (Schedule 1 Part 2).
Software that counts absence days from the accident date can prompt the report before the 15 days run out; the report itself goes through HSE’s online service.
RIDDOR in three stepsExplore
RIDDOR in three steps
Over three days
Off routine work more than three consecutive days: RECORD it.
RIDDOR in three steps
Over seven days
More than seven consecutive days: REPORT it within 15 days.
RIDDOR in three steps
Specified injury
Fractures other than fingers, thumbs or toes, amputations, serious burns and others: report.
COSHH
What must COSHH software hold? The assessment first, monitoring where needed
Assessment
Before the workCOSHH reg 6(1)Findings recorded
5+ employeesCOSHH reg 6(4)Monitoring
Where requisiteCOSHH reg 10(1)–(2)Personal records
40 yearsCOSHH reg 10(5)(a)An employer must not start work that exposes employees to a hazardous substance without a suitable and sufficient assessment (COSHH reg 6).
The assessment considers the substance’s hazards, the safety data sheet, exposure levels, workplace exposure limits and monitoring results, and is reviewed when any of them change.
Monitoring is required only where the assessment shows it is needed (reg 10), but where it is done, personal records run for decades.
One workshop, run through
What does a 60-person fabrication workshop need? A labelled case
Ironbridge Welding Ltd is an illustrative fabrication business with 60 employees.
Welding fume puts it under COSHH, and if its assessment calls for personal exposure monitoring, those records must outlive most of its staff’s careers.
Its accident book must separate three-day records from seven-day reports, and keep both for at least three years.
For Ironbridge the deciding test is retention and export, not dashboards.
Ironbridge Welding Ltd (illustrative)Explore
Ironbridge Welding Ltd (illustrative)
Risk assessments
60 employees, so significant findings are recorded.
Ironbridge Welding Ltd (illustrative)
COSHH
Welding fume: an assessment, and monitoring if it shows a need.
Ironbridge Welding Ltd (illustrative)
Monitoring records
Personal sampling of named welders: 40 years.
Ironbridge Welding Ltd (illustrative)
Accidents
Burns and hand injuries: records, and reports where over seven days.
11 vendors
Which platforms say they do it? EHS vendors, in their own words
11 vendors · ehs
“Benchmark Gensuite is a unified EHS management software platform built on a single architecture—connecting safety, environmental compliance, and operational risk across every site”
“One AI-enabled EHS software platform to drive performance across employee health, safety, quality, environmental, and sustainability”
“Dcycle is an ESG software platform founded in 2020 that helps companies collect, manage, and govern sustainability and non-financial data”
EcoOnline sells software to manage EHS and compliance.
“Enablon is Wolters Kluwer’s integrated software platform for environment, health and safety, PSM, and enterprise oversight, with ESG capabilities embedded as part of a broader risk approach”
“Manage safety, compliance, ESG, sustainability and operational risk from a platform built to keep programs reliable across sites, teams and operational change”
“Ideagen Carbon Accounting is an AI-powered solution designed to address complex multi-region ESG reporting challenges in carbon accounting”
“Bring safety, environment, and quality workflows into one connected platform”
IsoMetrix sells software to “manage their environmental, health, safety, sustainability, and social risks”.
“Digitally handle occupational safety, quality, sustainability, and environmental management”
“Sphera unifies risk, safety and sustainability into a single enterprise-wide view — connecting intelligence across operations, products and supply chains”
Alphabetical, which ranks nothing.
Each description is the vendor’s own words from its own site, read 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026; prices appear only where the vendor publishes one.
No product here has been tested by this site.
These vendors bring deep experience of workplace safety programmes; each description is the vendor’s own, read 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026.
Order of work
How should you choose HSE software? Records, retention, export
Start with the records the law makes you keep, then the retention each needs.
Only then compare features such as mobile reporting or audits, which help run the programme but are not what an inspector asks to see.
- 1
List your records
Risk assessments, RIDDOR, COSHH, and any sector rules.
- 2
Set the clocks
Retention per record type, from three years to forty.
- 3
Test the triggers
Absence days counted from the accident date.
- 4
Test the export
Everything an inspector could ask for, without the vendor.
In the demo
What should you ask in an HSE software demo? Six tests
Bring one real incident and one real COSHH assessment.
This site has tested no products
No vendor has been scored against these tests here.
HSE software demo questions · tick the ones you need
The pass tests are our reading of the cited provisions.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent.
For the board
Choose HSE software that keeps each record for as long as the law requires, and can hand every one of them to an inspector.
The site’s summary of the clocks and the order of work above.
Takeaways
HSE software, in five facts
| Fact | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| RIDDOR over-seven-day reports are due within 15 days | Count absence days from the accident date. |
| RIDDOR records are kept at least three years | Block early deletion. |
| COSHH personal monitoring records are kept at least 40 years | Plan the export before you sign. |
| Five or more employees triggers recorded findings | Most growing firms cross it early. |
| No law requires HSE software | Buy for completeness and retrieval. |
Four clocksExplore
Four clocks
15 days
RIDDOR report, at the latest.
Four clocks
3 years
RIDDOR records.
Four clocks
5 years
Other COSHH monitoring.
Four clocks
40 years
Personal COSHH monitoring.
Frequently asked
HSE software, answered
What is HSE software?
Software for health, safety and environment records: risk assessments, incidents, RIDDOR reports, COSHH assessments, inspections and audits.
In the UK the term also points at the records the Health and Safety Executive’s regime asks employers to keep.
Is HSE software the same as EHS software?
Mostly.
EHS and HSE name the same field in different orders.
This page is built around the UK record-keeping rules; the EHS software guide covers the category as a whole, including management systems and ESG.
Does the law require HSE software?
No. The law requires duties and records — a risk assessment, RIDDOR reports and records, COSHH assessments — not software.
Software is one way to keep them complete and retrievable.
Do small employers have to record risk assessments?
Every employer must make a suitable and sufficient risk assessment.
Only an employer with five or more employees must record its significant findings, under MHSWR 1999 reg 3(6).
When must a RIDDOR report be made?
For a specified injury, the reporting procedure applies straight away.
For an injury that keeps someone off routine work for more than seven consecutive days, excluding the day of the accident, the report is due as soon as practicable and in any event within 15 days of the accident.
How long must accident records be kept?
RIDDOR records, including injuries that keep someone off work for more than three consecutive days, must be kept for at least three years from the date the entry was made.
How long must COSHH monitoring records be kept?
Where exposure monitoring is carried out, a record representing identifiable employees’ personal exposures is kept for at least 40 years; any other monitoring record for at least 5 years, from the last entry.
Is COSHH exposure monitoring always required?
No. COSHH reg 10 requires monitoring where the risk assessment shows it is requisite, and not where another method of evaluation shows adequate control.
What is the best HSE software?
This site has tested no product and names no best.
Test a shortlist against the six record-keeping questions on this page, using one real incident and one real assessment.
Is ISO 45001 required?
No. ISO 45001 is a voluntary management system standard.
Many HSE platforms support it; certification is a business choice.
Has this site tested any HSE software?
No. The tests come from the cited regulations; vendor words are their own.
Sources
Primary sources
Every record rule on this page traces to the provision listed here; vendor words are each vendor’s own.
Checked against 15 sources fromlegislation.gov.ukHealth and Safety ExecutiveISO
- legislation.gov.ukHealth and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 2
The employer’s general duty and the written policy statement.
- legislation.gov.ukManagement of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3
The risk assessment; findings recorded at five or more employees.
- legislation.gov.ukRIDDOR 2013, regulation 1
In force 1 October 2013.
- legislation.gov.ukRIDDOR 2013, regulation 4
Specified injuries; over-seven-day injuries reported within 15 days.
- legislation.gov.ukRIDDOR 2013, regulation 12
Records, including over-three-day injuries, kept at least three years.
- legislation.gov.ukRIDDOR 2013, Schedule 1 Part 2
The particulars a record must hold.
- Health and Safety ExecutiveMake a RIDDOR report — overview
How to report online.
- legislation.gov.ukCOSHH 2002, regulation 6
Assessment before work; findings recorded at five or more employees.
- legislation.gov.ukCOSHH 2002, regulation 10
Exposure monitoring where requisite; records 40 or 5 years.
- ISOISO 45001:2018 Occupational health and safety
The voluntary OH&S management system standard.
- ISOISO 14001:2026 Environmental management systems
The environment half of HSE.
- Health and Safety ExecutiveHSE home
The health and safety regulator.
- legislation.gov.ukRIDDOR 2013, contents
The full set of reportable events.
- legislation.gov.ukCOSHH 2002, contents
The full regulations.
- legislation.gov.ukManagement of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, contents
The full regulations.