New figures show increase in number of workers killed in Wales

Date:

28 June 2011

New official statistics published today show the number of workers killed in Wales last year has increased.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released provisional data for the year April 2010 to March 2011, which shows the number of workers killed was 12- an increase on the previous year, when seven died.

Terry Rose, head of HSE in Wales, said

"The increase in the number of workers fatally injured in the last year is very disappointing,

"The fact that 12 people failed to come home from work to their loved ones last year reminds us all of the importance of this issue.

"It is a stark reminder of the need to ensure that health and safety remains focused on the real risks in workplaces, not on trivia and pointless paperwork.

"We all have a role to play - employers, employees and regulators - in making Wales a safer place to work."

Over the last five years, the average number of workers killed in Wales each year has been 12.

Notes to editors

1. 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
2. Further information on workplace statistics can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/statistics
3. In each of the last five years, the number of fatal injuries in Wales has been:
   • 2009/10 - 7 workers died - finalised figures
   • 2008/09 - 5 workers died
   • 2007/08 - 19 workers died
   • 2006/07 - 13 workers died
   • 2005/06 - 12 workers died
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 three 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 figures for 2010/11 are provisional. They will be finalised in June 2012 following any necessary adjustments arising from investigations, in which new facts can emerge about whether the accident was work-related. The delay of a year in finalising the figures allows for such matters to be fully resolved in the light of formal interviews with all relevant witnesses, forensic investigation and coroners' rulings.
6. This year is the first year HSE has adopted the revised SIC 2007 classification codes. More information is available on HSE Website http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/sic2007.htm

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by COI News & PR Wales