Reminder for employers after two workers killed in Cheshire

Date:

27 December 2012

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

Employers are being urged to focus on the real risks affecting workers after two people lost their lives while at work in Cheshire last year and 428 suffered a major injury.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has asked businesses 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 deaths during 2010/11. More than 23,000 workers also suffered a major injury.

The two deaths and 428 major injuries in Cheshire last year compare to seven deaths and 463 major injuries in 2010/11. Another 1,610 workers suffered injuries which required at least three days off work in 2011/12, compared to 1,680 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, David Snowball, HSE's Director for the North, said:

"Each year, instead of enjoying the occasion, families of workers who failed to come home from work spend Christmas and the New Year thinking of the loved ones who are not there to enjoy it with them.

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

"Health and safety in the workplace needs to be taken seriously. I hope that in 2013 employers will tackle the real rather than the trivial dangers that workers face and not mire themselves in pointless paperwork so we can reduce the number of workplace deaths and major injuries."

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 the North West during 2011/12 and 2010/11. Three-day injuries are injuries where workers had to take three or more days off work to recover

   	Deaths		Major injuries		Over 3 day injuries
   	10/11	11/12	10/11	11/12	10/11	11/12
   Cheshire	7	2	463	428	1,680	1,610
   Cheshire East	3	-	141	147	502	481
   Cheshire West & Chester	2	-	164	134	548	472
   Halton	2	2	47	53	243	266
   Warrington	-	-	111	94	387	391
   Cumbria	5	6	219	215	808	794
   Allerdale	2	1	41	27	145	114
   Barrow-in-Furness	-	2	28	26	112	128
   Carlisle	-	-	51	60	230	210
   Copeland	-	1	23	21	83	98
   Eden	1	1	31	25	99	98
   South Lakeland	2	1	45	56	139	146
   Greater Manchester	2	9	1,118	1,052	4,185	4,086
   Bolton	-	1	102	91	363	406
   Bury	-	1	64	57	271	238
   Manchester	1	2	303	294	1,107	1,167
   Oldham	-	2	69	73	350	348
   Rochdale	-	1	91	66	383	313
   Salford	-	1	113	101	346	325
   Stockport	-	-	96	84	319	320
   Tameside	-	-	82	73	284	248
   Trafford	1	-	96	128	331	352
   Wigan	-	1	102	85	431	369
   Lancashire	8	5	665	548	2,422	2,231
   Blackburn	1	1	68	49	279	204
   Blackpool	-	-	56	69	254	213
   Burnley	-		35	33	152	139
   Chorley	-	1	53	38	177	173
   Fylde	-	1	34	21	88	83
   Hyndburn	-	-	35	24	124	104
   Lancaster	2	-	67	61	219	212
   Pendle	-	-	38	20	137	124
   Preston	1	1	84	72	306	321
   Ribble Valley	-	-	31	23	100	99
   Rossendale	-	-	22	21	92	89
   South Ribble	1	1	43	40	179	175
   West Lancashire	1	-	62	48	203	203
   Wyre	2	-	37	29	112	92
   Merseyside	4	3	537	479	2,213	2,025
   Knowsley	2	2	56	55	230	287
   Liverpool	-	-	227	194	927	783
   St Helens	-	-	75	54	301	319
   Sefton	1	-	80	69	331	294
   Wirral	1	1	99	107	424	342
   North West	26	25	3,002	2,722	11,308	10,746

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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