HSE Updates costs to Britain of workplace accidents and work-related ill health

New, updated figures are available by following this link http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/pdf/cost-to-britain.pdf

HSE Press Release: E139:04 - 6 October 2004

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prepared interim updated estimates of the costs to Britain of workplace accidents and work-related ill health. These indicate that in 2001/02 health and safety failures cost

• employers between £3.9 - £7.8 billion,
• individuals between £10.1- £14.7 billion,
• the economy between £13.1 - £22.2 billion, and
• society as a whole between £20 - £31.8 billion.

The new estimates also quantify the major cost categories that make up the totals. For employers, figures are given by industry sector, occupation and region.

HSE has published two previous sets of cost estimates using data from 1990 and 1995/96. These have been used widely within HSE to inform strategic policy, new programme development, appraisals of policy proposals (e.g. Regulatory Impact Assessments) and, more recently, evaluations of HSE's impact. The information has also been used to answer enquiries from other government departments, the private sector, employer organisations, trade unions, academics and the public.

To carry out these detailed calculations, HSE needs to draw on a large amount of data from many different sources. The full set of data required will not be available until 2005, so HSE has produced an interim update using the best available occupational injury and illness data from 2001/02. Where there are gaps in the data, assumptions have been made and changes in prices and incomes have also been taken into account.

The updated figures carry some limitations. The estimates are only meant as broad indications of cost and a review of the previous update has led to HSE adopting proportionately wider ranges for many of them. This better reflects the uncertainty in the figures.

Finally, only broad comparisons can be made between the 1995/96 and 2001/02 estimates, and even these must be treated with caution as there are differences in the design of the 1995 and the 2001/02 Self-reported Work-related Illness surveys (part of the ONS Labour Force Survey) that provided the bulk of the data used in calculating the ill health cost estimates.

Interim update of 'The costs to Britain of workplace accidents and work-related ill health in 1995/96' can be found on HSE's website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/dayslost.htm

Notes to editors

1. In 1999, HSE published ' The costs to Britain of workplace accidents and work-related ill health in 1995/96', HSE 1999, ISBN 0 7176 1709 2, price £24.95. The new figures are the results of a two-stage strategy for updating these estimates using the best available information. The second stage will use a much fuller set of information and will be based on 2004/05 data.

2. The cost estimates are used by HSE to encourage employers to take action, in Regulatory Impact Assessments, to estimate health and safety benefits of meeting PSA and/or Strategic Programme targets and in guidance to employers (e.g. on work-related back pain). They are also used outside HSE to make the case for compliance with health and safety law.

3. HSE has traditionally estimated costs for three types of stakeholder: individuals, employers and society. The estimates for the major cost categories are broken down by whether the outcome is ill health, injury or non-injury accidents. In some cases, rounding the figures means that the totals do not equal the sum of the subtotals.

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