HSE press release E115:03 - 1 July 2003
Announcing the number of fatal accidents in agriculture in 2002/03, Linda Williams, the Health & Safety Executive's Chief Inspector of Agriculture, said:
"Although I welcome the fact that the total number of people killed is, at 38, the lowest figure in over a decade, I must warn against complacency, particularly in regard to fatalities among the self-employed.
"This group accounted for 20 cases out of the total, while employees numbered 15, and three were members of the public, including, sadly, one child.
"If we compare the workforce figures with those for the previous year, the number of self-employed who died rose by one, while the number of employees fell by five.
"In a sector where the workforce is declining year on year, any rising trend of injuries is of special concern, because it means that the injury rate - the number of workers killed per 100,000 - is even higher than it appears from the headline figures. The injury rate helps us to establish what is really going on.
"Looking at the trends over the last 17 years, the incident rate for fatal injuries amongst employees has gradually declined. However, in the case of the self-employed, we have seen consistently higher rates, and the fact is that the rate of fatal injuries among the self-employed in agriculture has been higher in the past few years than it was in the early 1990s.
Mrs Williams continued: "HSE and the industry can take some comfort, and, I believe, some credit for, the decline in incident rate among the employed, and we must continue to find new and innovative ways to drive this down further.
"But we must also tackle the much higher rates amongst the
self-employed and family farmers. It is more difficult for us to
connect with this part of the agriculture sector but we have
embarked on a number of workstreams to deal with the problem.
"The Agriculture Inspectorate will continue to run its
successful programme of Safety Awareness Days specifically targeted
at the self-employed and family farms, demonstrating common health
and safety risks and solutions.
"In particular we plan co-coordinated action to make the industry a much safer place to work in. We will be strengthening our links with the National Farmers Union, the Transport & General Workers Union and a wide range of individuals and organisations with interest and influence in the agricultural and rural community. Through partnership and co-operation we are determined to reduce the tragic toll of preventable deaths in agriculture.
"In doing so we will be working towards meeting the more challenging targets which were agreed with the Agriculture Industry Advisory Committee (AIAC) in October 2002, building on the Health & Safety Commission's overall strategy."
Mrs Williams added that HSE would also improve the Agriculture web page on the HSE website; produce downloadable software to simplify the process of risk assessment and to help farmers apply good practice in health and safety; and continue to deliver targeted publicity and free good practice leaflets and other guidance in plain language.
Simple steps that farming families could take include:
In the coming year, HSE will be targeting transport (which claimed 12 lives, 32% of the total this year), falls from height, child safety and musculoskeletal disorders in their visits to farms and forests.
Single copies of 'Fatal injuries in farming, forestry and horticulture 2002/2003' are available free from the Health & Safety Executive, Agriculture & Food Sector, National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh, Kenilworth, Warwickshire CV8 2LZ.
The new strategic targets agreed with AIAC for agriculture are:
These are significantly more challenging targets than those originally set for HSE by the Health and Safety Commission.
All enquiries from journalists should be directed to the HSE Press Office
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