Good progress on reducing injuries and fatalities at work not matched by progress on work-related harm to health

Policy Release

Date:

27 October 2010

New figures released today confirm that Britain has the lowest rate of fatal occupational injuries in Europe and one of the lowest levels of work-related ill health.

The statistics published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show that in Britain between April 2009 and March 2010:

• There were 152 workers fatally injured - down from 179 the previous year. This is the lowest level on record in Britain, with 0.5 deaths per 100,000 workers.
• There were 26,061 major injuries, such as amputations and burns, to employees - a rate of 101.5 per 100,000 - compared with 27,894 in 2008/09.
• There were 95,369 injuries serious enough to keep people off work for three or more days - a rate of 371.5 per 100,000 - down from 105,261 the previous year.
• An estimated 1.3 million people said they were suffering from an illness caused or made worse by their work, up from 1.2 million in 2008/09. Of this, 555,000 of these were new illnesses occurring in-year.
• A further 800,000 former workers claim they are still suffering from an illness caused or made worse by work.

Judith Hackitt, Chair of HSE said:

"It is encouraging to see further reduction in the number of people being killed and seriously injured at work. We now need to ensure that the improvements which are being made continue. Every statistic represents an individual or a family which is now suffering as a result of health and safety failings at work.

"Britain remains one of the safest places to work in the EU and we are rightly proud of this record. The challenge now is to focus on those areas where improvement is slow to emerge.

"We know what good practice looks like but there remain significant areas of poor practice which still result in serious harm to people at work. These statistics also remind us yet again of the significant gains which are yet to be made in reducing the harm caused to people's health by work."

The construction and agricultural industries continue to report the highest levels of work-related injuries and ill-health, with disproportionately high numbers of incidents.

The toll of injury and ill-health resulted in 28.5 million working days being lost, an average of 1.2 days per worker - 23.4 million to ill-health and 5.1 million to injury.

HSE continues to take a tough line with employers who put workers at risk of injury or illness. It issued 9,734 enforcement notices requiring firms to stop dangerous activities or make improvements to the way they manage safety. It also took court action against the 1,026 most serious offences.

Notes to editors

1. The full statistics, including comparisons to previous years, are available online at www.hse.gov.uk/statistics
2. In 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available across the EU, the average rate of work-related fatal injury in the EU, excluding traffic accidents, was 2.1 per 100,000 workers. The European statistical agency, Eurostat, published the results of a labour force survey in 2007, which showed that the EU average across all 27 member states for work-related ill health is 8,600 incidents per 100,000 workers. These are the most recent figures.
3. The Labour Force Survey is a survey of households living at private addresses in the UK. Its purpose is to provide information on the UK labour market which can then be used to develop, manage, evaluate and report on labour market policies, and includes questions about work-related ill health, which HSE then publishes. The survey is managed by the Office of National Statistics in Britain.
4. The reporting of health and safety incidents at work is a statutory requirement, set out under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR). A reportable incident includes: a death or major injury; any accident which does not result in major injury, but the injured person still has to take four or more days off their normal work to recover; a work-related disease; a member of the public being injured as a result of work-related activity and taken to hospital for treatment; or a dangerous occurrence (which does not result in a serious injury, but could have done).
5. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

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