Accident at work claims in Scotland
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Published by Rooney Family Law Limited, solicitors, regulated by the Law Society of Scotland. Last reviewed 20th September 2026.
If you were injured at work in Scotland because your employer did not take reasonable care of your safety, you may have a claim for compensation, and you normally have three years from the date of the accident to start a court action. Most employers must hold insurance for exactly this, so a successful claim is normally paid by the employer's insurer rather than out of the business or your colleagues' wages.
When an employer is responsible
Every employer in Scotland owes its staff a duty to take reasonable care for their safety. In practice that means a safe place to work, safe equipment that is properly maintained, a safe way of doing the job, proper training, and competent colleagues. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations under it set out what employers must do, on matters such as lifting and carrying, working at height, machinery, protective equipment and workplace conditions. Since 2013 a breach of those regulations does not by itself give you a right to compensation; you have to show the employer was negligent. But the regulations are strong evidence of what a careful employer should have done, and courts treat them that way.
The duty is owed whether you are permanent, temporary, zero-hours or agency. Self-employed contractors and visitors to a site may also be able to claim against whoever controlled the workplace. If a colleague's carelessness injured you, the employer is usually responsible for that too.
The kinds of accident that lead to claims
Most often: lifting and carrying injuries, especially to the back and shoulders; falls from ladders, scaffolds, vehicles and mezzanines; slips on wet or contaminated floors and trips over cables, stock or uneven surfaces; injuries from machinery, including guards that were missing or removed; being struck by vehicles such as forklifts in warehouses and yards; injuries from tools that were not maintained; and assaults on staff in shops, hospitals, care settings and security work where the employer should have done more to protect them. Injuries that build up over time, such as hearing loss, vibration injury and repetitive strain, can also be claimed for, though the time limit works differently for them.
Two illustrations, not real cases. A warehouse worker is told to move pallets by hand because the pallet truck has been broken for a fortnight, and injures his back. The employer knew and did nothing. That is the kind of claim usually worth pursuing. By contrast, a worker trips over her own bag, left in the walkway. Nobody else did anything wrong, so there is no one to claim against.
What to do now
Get whatever medical attention your injury needs; if you are seen by a general practitioner, at a minor injuries unit or at A&E, the record made at the time will also be important evidence later. Report the accident to your employer and make sure it goes in the accident book; if it is not recorded, send a short email describing what happened and keep a copy. Photograph where it happened and whatever caused it, before it is cleaned up or repaired. Note the names of anyone who saw it. Keep every receipt and payslip showing what the injury has cost you.
Certain serious injuries must be reported by your employer to the Health and Safety Executive under the RIDDOR regulations. If yours was, ask for a copy of the report.
What about your job?
You should not be penalised for making a genuine claim, but bringing an injury claim does not by itself make a dismissal unlawful. Dismissing or punishing an employee for raising a genuine health and safety concern is automatically unfair regardless of length of service, and an employee dismissed for making a claim may have an unfair dismissal claim; if you have less than two years' service, however, your protection is narrower. In practice employers rarely react badly, because the claim is dealt with by their insurer, and most people who claim carry on working where they are. If you have been threatened, disciplined or dismissed since the accident, tell us at once, because employment tribunal time limits are short, usually three months, and it changes the advice.
Who pays
Most employers in Great Britain must hold employers' liability insurance under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, subject to some exemptions, and must make the certificate available. The claim is made against the employer and is normally handled and paid by its insurer. If your employer has gone out of business, a claim can often still be made against the insurer that was on cover at the time, and the Employers' Liability Tracing Office keeps records that help find it. Cover cannot be guaranteed in every case, and the specialist firm will check it.
What you can claim for
Compensation in Scotland has two parts. Solatium is for the pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life the injury has caused. The second part is your financial losses: wages lost now and in future, treatment, travel, equipment, and the value of care and help from family members, which the law lets you claim even though they did not charge you. Where you can no longer do things you used to do for your household, that can be claimed too. Our page on how much compensation you can expect goes into this.
How long you have
Normally three years from the accident to start a court action. If you did not know at the time, and could not reasonably have found out, that your injury was serious enough to justify a claim or what caused it, the three years may run from when you knew or could reasonably have known. For an injury before your sixteenth birthday, time does not start until you are sixteen. Making an enquiry does not stop time running; only raising the court action does. Our page on the three-year time limit covers the exceptions.
How long a claim takes
For most claims worth up to £25,000, not including disease or medical negligence claims, the specialist firm must follow a set process before going to court. The insurer has 21 days to acknowledge and up to three months to say whether it accepts responsibility. A claim where responsibility is accepted and the injury has healed commonly settles within twelve to eighteen months. Disputed claims, or ones where treatment continues, take longer, because your solicitor should not settle until the full effect of the injury is known.
The evidence that decides most claims
The accident book entry or your own written report; the medical record from the days after; photographs of the scene and the cause; witness names; any risk assessment, training record or maintenance record the employer holds, which your solicitor can request; payslips from before and after; and a diary of how the injury has affected you. You do not need all of it to enquire. See what evidence you need.
When we will say a claim is unlikely to proceed
Where the accident was not caused by anything the employer did or failed to do; where more than three years have passed without good reason; where there is no evidence the accident happened as described and no way of getting any; or where the injury was so minor the claim would not be worth the process. We will say so and explain why. That is our assessment, not a ruling, and you can ask another solicitor.
Questions people ask
I am self-employed. Can I still claim?
Often, yes, against whoever controlled the site or supplied the equipment, if they were at fault.
The accident was partly my fault.
Your compensation may be reduced by a percentage to reflect that, but the claim can still be made.
I did not report it at the time.
That makes the claim harder but not impossible. Report it now, in writing, and tell us why it was not reported then.
Will my employer know I have enquired?
Not from us. Your employer finds out when the specialist firm sends a formal letter of claim, and that only happens if the firm accepts your case and you instruct it.
What if I was injured at a client's premises?
The claim may be against your employer, the occupier, or both. Tell us where it happened and who was in charge there.
Injured at work? Tell us what happened
We assess your enquiry free of charge and, with your consent, refer good claims to a specialist personal injury firm, which decides whether to take your case on. We receive a referral payment from that firm, paid out of the fee it earns; under our agreement it must not increase the success fee you are charged.
Sources for this page: Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974; Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, section 69; Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969; Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999; Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992; Work at Height Regulations 2005; Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013; Employment Rights Act 1996, sections 44, 100 and 108; Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, section 17; Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act 1982, sections 8 and 9; Act of Sederunt (Sheriff Court Rules Amendment) (Personal Injury Pre-Action Protocol) 2016; Health and Safety Executive guidance.