Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Statistics
The latest survey of self-reported work-related illness (SWI) carried out in 2006/07 estimated that 95 000 people whose current or most recent job in the last year was in the public administration and defence sector suffered from an illness which was caused or made worse by this job (See Table WRIIND2). The associated prevalence rate, 4700 per 100 000 people (4.7%) working in the last year, was statistically significantly higher than the rate for all industries (3900 per 100 000 people – 3.9%).
Comparing this rate for public administration and defence with corresponding rates from earlier SWI surveys indicates that the estimated prevalence rate in 2006/07 was statistically significantly higher than that in 2005/06 (3600 per 100 000 people - 3.6%), but was of a similar order (not statistically significantly different) to those rate in 2004/05 (4300 per 100 000 people – 4.3%), 2003/04 (4700 per 100 000 people – 4.7%) and 2001/02 (5700 per 100 000 people – 5.7%).
SWI Table WRIIND4 shows that the estimated incidence rate in 2006/07 for the public administration and defence sector of 2600 per 100 000 people (2.6%) working in the last 12 months was statistically significantly higher than the average for all industries (1900 per 100 000 people – 1.9%). This rate was also statistically significantly higher than the rate in 2005/06 (1600 per 100 000 people – 1.6%), but was of a similar order (not statistically significantly different) to the rates in 2004/05 (2300 per 100 000 people – 2.3%), 2003/04 (2500 per 100 000 people – 2.5%) and 2001/02 (3200 per 100 000 people – 3.2%).
More detailed prevalence data by type of illness are not yet available from SWI06/07. However, earlier SWI surveys indicate that the prevalence rates for stress, depression or anxiety (See SWI Table STRIND2) and musculoskeletal disorders (See Table MSDIND2) for public administration and defence in 2005/06 was of a similar order (not statistically significantly different) to the corresponding rates in 2004/05 and 2003/04, but were statistically significantly lower than those in 2001/02 for people working in the last 12 months.
THOR data (see Table ILLPUB5) indicates that the incidence rate of stress is more than double the all industries average.
Data from the 2006/07 LFS and SWI surveys indicate that the combined estimate of the number of days lost (full-day equivalent) due to workplace injury and work-related ill health attributed to the current or most recent job in the public administration and defence sector was 3.3 million, equating to an average annual loss of an estimated 2.0 days per worker. This was statistically significantly higher than the rate for all industries (1.3 days per worker) and the corresponding rate in 2005/06 (1.3 days per worker), but was similar (not statistically significantly different) to the rates in 2004/05 (2.0 days per worker) and 2003/04 (2.6 days per worker).
Workplace injuries and work-related illness accounted for an estimated 0.6 and 2.8 million working days lost (full-day equivalent) respectively in 2006/07, with corresponding rates of 0.33 and 1.68 days per worker.
The injury rate was of a similar order (not statistically significantly different) to the respective rates of 0.27, 0.19 and 0.56 days per workers in 2005/06, 2004/05 and 2003/04.
However, the ill health rate was statistically significantly higher than of 1.0 days per worker in 2005/06, but was a similar order (not statistically significantly different) to those of 1.8 and 2.0 days per worker in 2004/05 and 2003/04 respectively (see Table WDLIND).
There were 5 fatal injuries to workers in public administration in 2006/07p, compared to 2 in 2005/06 and 4 in 2003/04. All of the 20 fatalities during the past four years were to employees.
This represents a rate of 0.3 per 100 000 workers in 2006/07 and 0.1 and 0.3 in 2005/06 and 2003/04 respectively. Due to the relatively small numbers of fatailities each year, the number and rate of injury shows no clear trend over time.
In 2003/04 there was a change to the employer database against which HSE non-fatal injury reports are assigned. This affected the spread of non-fatal injury numbers by industry, with a major impact on the public administration sector. As a result, injury figures prior to 2003/04 cannot be compared with more recent data for this sector. In essence, they are two separate series. Until more data are available on the new basis, this means that an accurate assessment of a long-term trend cannot be made. The change in coding practice affects injury numbers but not the corresponding workforce figures and hence injury rates will also be affected.
The number of reported major injuries to employees in public administration fell slightly, by 0.5%, to 3359 in 2006/07p, from 3375 in 2005/06. This compares to 3386 in 2003/04.
The rate of reported major injury also fell slightly, to 230 per 100 000 employees in 2006/07, from 231 in 2005/06. This represents a fall of 3% from the 2003/04 rate of 237.
46% of major injuries were due to slips & trips (1541), 14% to handling (460) and 10% to physical assault and violence (325).
The number of over-3-day injuries fell by 3% to 16 280 in 2006/07 from 16 859 in 2005/06. This represents an 11% fall from the number reported in 2003/04 (18 295). Over-3-day injury rates also fell by 13%, from 1156 per 100 000 employees in 2005/06 to 1116 in 2006/076. In 2003/04, the rate was 1279.
The most common kinds of injury were handling, with 6633 over-3-day injuries (41%); slip or trip, with 4123 (25%); and physical assault and violence, with 1541 (9%)
Based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the rate of reportable non-fatal injury in public administration was 1100 per 100 000 workers (1.1%) in 2005/06 (three-year average), similar (not statistically significantly different) to the average for all industries (1000 per 100 000 workers – 1.0%).
