Reminder for employers after 19 workers killed in Eastern England

Date:

27 December 2012

(Statistics available for local authority areas - see Notes to editors)

Employers are being urged to focus on real risk after 19 workers lost their lives and 2,141 suffered a major injury while at work in Eastern England last year.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has asked business to rethink workplace safety provisions in the New Year after the number of deaths in Great Britain as a whole failed to show a significant fall in 2011/12.

A total of 173 workers were killed at work in Great Britain last year, compared to 175 worker deaths during 2010/11. More than 23,000 workers also suffered a major injury.

The 19 deaths and 2,141 major injuries in Eastern England last year compare to 19 deaths and 2,341 major injuries in 2010/11. Another 8,274 workers suffered injuries which required at least three days off work in 2011/12, compared to 8,327 in 2010/11.

The latest provisional figures show that nationwide, on average, six in every million workers were killed while at work between April 2011 and March 2012.

High-risk industries include construction, which had 49 deaths last year, agriculture with 33 deaths, manufacturing with 31 deaths and waste and recycling with 5 deaths - making up more than half of all workplace deaths in Great Britain during 2011/12.

Urging employers to make the safety of workers their top priority for 2013, Simon Longbottom, HSE's Head of Operations for Eastern England, said:

"Each year, instead of enjoying the occasion, families of workers in Eastern England who failed to come home from work safely spend Christmas and the New Year thinking of absent loved ones.

"Hundreds of other workers who have had their lives changed forever by major injury will be experiencing difficulties of their own.

"When put into this kind of context, it is clear why health and safety in British workplaces needs to be taken seriously. I implore employers to tackle the real dangers that workers face rather than focussing on the trivial or mire themselves in pointless paperwork.

"My New Year wish is that we can reduce the number of deaths and major injury in 2013 and make the year ahead a happier one for many families."

Information on tackling health and safety dangers in workplaces is available on HSE's website at www.hse.gov.uk.

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. The following table lists the numbers of deaths and injuries across Eastern England during 2011/12 and 2010/11. Three-day injuries are injuries where workers had to take three or more days off work to recover.

   	Fatal injuries		Major injuries		Over 3 day injuries
   	10/11	11/12	10/11	11/12	10/11	11/12
   East	19	19	2 341	2 141	8 327	8 274
   Bedfordshire	-	1	238	201	894	889
   Bedford	-	-	80	68	286	313
   Central Bedfordshire	-	-	77	75	277	272
   Luton	-	1	81	58	331	304
   Cambridgeshire	2	2	402	362	1 381	1 346
   Cambridge	1	-	73	67	291	276
   East Cambridgeshire	-	1	61	45	131	126
   Fenland	1	-	47	47	177	165
   Huntingdonshire	-	-	77	54	280	254
   Peterborough	-	-	97	106	353	351
   South Cambridgeshire	-	1	47	43	149	174
   Essex	4	10	652	597	2 272	2 193
   Basildon	-	-	82	62	263	240
   Braintree	-	1	45	40	192	188
   Brentwood	-	1	26	20	82	82
   Castle Point	-	-	12	17	63	56
   Chelmsford	-	-	68	78	256	217
   Colchester	1	2	72	75	276	287
   Epping Forest	-	3	47	40	144	155
   Harlow	-	-	39	34	148	147
   Maldon	-	-	16	22	47	55
   Rochford	-	-	19	24	57	56
   Southend-on-Sea	-	-	62	49	189	150
   Tendring	2	-	43	40	145	119
   Thurrock	1	3	80	70	257	296
   Uttlesford	-	-	41	26	153	145
   Hertfordshire	-	4	376	342	1 409	1 400
   Broxbourne	-	-	24	33	100	134
   Dacorum	-	1	43	40	169	148
   East Hertfordshire	-	-	45	33	159	151
   Hertsmere	-	1	31	25	111	122
   North Hertfordshire	-	1	43	43	128	128
   St Albans	-	1	50	38	147	165
   Stevenage	-	-	27	29	172	151
   Three Rivers	-	-	24	24	65	72
   Watford	-	-	39	34	137	129
   Welwyn Hatfield	-	-	50	43	221	200
   Norfolk	9	-	373	332	1 261	1 260
   Breckland	-	-	60	58	230	233
   Broadland	-	-	32	30	187	188
   Great Yarmouth	4	-	40	29	114	113
   Kings Lynn & West Norfolk	3	-	75	81	250	239
   North Norfolk	1	-	42	42	109	118
   Norwich	-	-	82	54	234	225
   South Norfolk	1	-	42	38	137	144
   Suffolk	4	2	300	307	1 110	1 186
   Babergh	-	-	22	20	62	70
   Forest Heath	2	-	62	65	174	181
   Ipswich	-	1	48	44	198	202
   Mid Suffolk	2	-	24	30	110	130
   St Edmundsbury	-	-	43	50	178	201
   Suffolk Coastal	-	1	53	54	237	228
   Waveney	-	-	48	44	151	174

3. A list of the deaths reported to HSE during 2011/12 is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/fatalities/2011-12.htm The information is updated on a monthly basis, and does not purport to be a formal statistical release. Subsequent investigation may determine that some are not reportable as workplace deaths, for example deaths due to natural causes.
4. Further information on workplace statistics can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/statistics
5. Based on available data (2007), Britain has the lowest rate of fatal injuries to workers among the five leading industrial nations in Europe - Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
6. 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.
7. The figures for 2011/12 are provisional. They will be finalised in June 2013 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.

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