HSC publishes "Health & Safety in Local Authority Enforced Sectors: HELA National Picture 2002"

HSE Press Release C051:02 - 19 November 2002

The Health & Safety Commission (HSC) today publishes the latest detailed statistics on workplace safety, ill health, inspection and enforcement action in local authority (LA) enforced sectors. The document can be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/books.htm

In April 2001 the Incident Contact Centre (ICC) was introduced to receive and record all RIDDOR notifications centrally. Provisional figures for 2001/02 show a reduction in the number of fatalities to workers, from 19 in 2000/01 to 12 in 2001/02, whilst fatalities to members of the public increased from 21 to 27, continuing a rising trend from 1996/97. HSC published the fatal injuries statistics for all sectors in July 2002, following special quality assurance of fatal records. The 2001/02 provisional non-fatal injury statistics will be released on 10 December following extra quality assurance work, connected with the new system of reporting, which has taken longer than anticipated.

T he main points for 2000/01 finalised statistics are:

• The rate of reported major injury has fallen gradually over the past four years to 47.5 per 100,000 employees in 2000/01. The rate of over-three-day injuries fell by 5% in 2000/01 to 211.4.
  
• Non-fatal injuries to members of the public fell from 7,567 in 1999/2000 to 5,315 in 2000/01. Numbers have fluctuated widely since the introduction of RIDDOR 95.
  
• The number of full-time equivalent LA enforcement officers fell by 4% in 2000/01 to 1,070, continuing the recent downward trend. There was a consequent fall in the number of visits to premises from 313,000 to 300,000 and a 5% reduction in formal enforcement notices issued. Overall, the rate of visits has fallen by almost a quarter in the last five years.
  
• In 2000/01, 401 informations were laid, of which 88% resulted in a conviction. The average fine per conviction was £3,903, 15% lower than the previous year (£4,595).
  
• Results from the Self-reported Work-related Illness Survey 1998/99 indicated that 366,000 people who worked in the past 12 months suffered from an illness in that period attributed to their current or most recent job in the LA enforced sector. Musculoskeletal disorders were the most commonly reported condition, followed by stress, depression and anxiety. This estimate will be updated in next year's National Picture using results from the Self-reported Work-related Illness Survey 2001/02.

Copies of Health and safety in local authority enforced sectors: HELA National Picture 2002 can be ordered online at: http://books.hse.gov.uk.

Notes to editors

1. 410 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales are responsible for enforcing health and safety law in 1.2 million premises, such as offices, retail/wholesale distribution outlets, hotel and catering establishments, residential care homes, consumer services and the leisure industry. Section 18(4) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires LAs to perform their duties in accordance with guidance from HSC.

2. HSC proposes new or updated laws and standards, and provides information and advice, whilst enforcement is divided between LAs and HSE, depending on the main activity carried out at work premises. The HSE/LA Enforcement Liaison Committee (HELA) was set up in 1975 to ensure consistency in enforcement among LAs and between LAs and HSE.

3. The Revitalising Health and Safety strategy statement was launched by the Chair of the HSC and the Deputy Prime Minister in June 2000. It includes a 44-point action plan which aims to achieve, by 2010, the following national targets for improving health and safety:

• to reduce the number of working days lost per 100,000 workers from work-related injury and ill-health by 30%;
• to reduce the incidence rate of cases of work-related ill-health by 20%;
• to reduce the incidence rate of fatalities and major injuries by 10%; and
• to achieve half the improvement under each target by 2004.

4. New arrangements for "National Statistics'" were also launched by the Government in July 2000, to enhance the integrity and quality of official statistics. The National Statistics logo, which is on the HELA National Picture 2002, means that the statistics concerned must be produced to high professional standards, subject to regular quality assurance reviews, and published free from political interference. To achieve this, the National Statistics arrangements include an independent Statistics Commission, a Code of Practice, and mechanisms for consultation with stakeholders.

5. The data on workplace injuries for 2001/02 are the first being collected by electronic means at the ICC. RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) notifications can now be submitted by telephone, the web, fax and email, as well as by post. HSE recognised during the implementation of the ICC that additional quality assurance work would be needed with a system new to employers and new for processing RIDDOR notifications. The extra work is necessary to ensure HSE's key statistical outputs meet the standards of National Statistics - the Government's code of practice on production and release of official statistics. The quality assurance work is taking longer than anticipated because of the complex issues that the ICC is expected to deal with. HSE and the ICC are developing a programme of improvements for specific areas of data collection. However, this has led to a delay in the release of 2001/02 provisional non-fatal injury statistics. These will be released on 10 December. Fatality records are subject to special quality assurance arrangements and are unaffected by the ICC. The 2001/02 fatal figures were released in July 2002.

6. Figures for England, Scotland and Wales:

England 2000/2001 Fatal: 18 employees, 17 members of the public (MoP)
Non-fatal: 28,048 employees, 4733 MoP 1999/2000 Fatal: 9 employees, 18 MoP
Non-fatal: 28,980 employees, 6,766 MoP Scotland 2000/2001 Fatal: 0
Non-fatal: 1,650 employees, 308 MoP 1999/2000 Fatal: 2 employees
Non-fatal: 1,757 employees, 427 MoP Wales 2000/2001 Fatal: 4 MoP
Non-fatal: 1,135 employees, 274 MoP 1999/2000 Fatal: 1 employee
Non-fatal: 1,246 employees, 374 MoP

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