Injury analysis - priority programmes: slips and trips

RIDDOR

Although the number of over-3-day slip and trip accidents has fallen since 2001/02, the number of major injuries has remained essentially flat. Most of the change in the final year is the result of the coding of slips and trips on stairs as falls.

Chart 7: Non-fatal slip/trip accidents to employees reported under RIDDOR

• View data

The number and rate of slip and trip injuries reported varies considerably by industry and occupation. Higher risk industries include construction, public administration, postal services and food manufacturing. See detailed tables for a breakdown of reported slip and trip accidents by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Standard Occupation Classification (SOC).

• Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) [Excel]
• Standard Occupation Classification (SOC) [Excel]

In addition to the annual data, quarterly seasonally adjusted data on reported slips and trips is available three months after the end of the quarter and can be used to monitor current trends. Quarterly changes in the seasonally adjusted, non-fatal, injury series for slips & trips since 2004/05 can be seen in the chart below.

Chart 8: Quarterly changes (%) Seasonally adjusted - reported slip & trip injuries

Risk control surveys

Between 2005 and 2007, HSE conducted a series of annual working condition surveys of both workers and employers to monitor progress against the topic areas identified as priorities in HSE’s strategic plan. The aim of the surveys was to understand attitudes and behaviours in relation to risk control for the different hazard areas.

The charts below show keys results from these surveys in relation to slips and trips.

Chart 9: Key results from the "Fit3" employer survey  

• View data for key results from the "Fit3" employer survey

Chart 10: Key results from the "Fit3" worker survey

• View data for key results from the "Fit3" worker survey

In 2006, HSE and IOSH conducted some joint research into IOSH members views on the issue of slips and trips. A follow-up study was carried out in 2007 with a different subset of members. The key findings from this work were:

• Slips and trips is a priority area in most members organisations
• 8 out of 10 members felt that their organisations were committed to tackling the issue
• Only 13% felt that their organisations were fully effective at controlling the slip and trip risk
• Less than 1 in 10 felt that good practice was always implemented in their workplaces and that workers were fully committed to co-operating to reduce risks

The full reports from the research can be found from the links below.

• Slips and trips - Baseline survey of IOSH members
• Slips and trips - Survey of IOSH members - wave 2 results and comparison with wave 1