Health and Safety Accident Statistics
In this article our Health and Safety Principal Lee Craig reviews the most up to date Health and Safety Accident stats.
Every year the Health and Safety Executive issue their annual statistics on workplace accidents and ill health across the UK.? The primary source of the statistics is from reports made to the Health and Safety Executive through the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations – also known as RIDDOR.? Information is also sourced from the Labour Force Survey (carried out by the Office of National Statistics); reports of ill health made by doctors and specialist physicians; ill health assessed for disablement benefit and from death certificates.?
For the majority of people and businesses the annual statistics will come and go un-noticed, but for those with responsibility for health and safety the detail that sits behind the headline statistics provides valuable insight into the accident trends across the UK by type and by sector.? Let’s look at the headline statistics in a bit more detail.?
Ill Health (new and long standing)??
1.8 million work related illnesses – without exception the impact of work on the health and well-being of employees is significant.? With 49% of cases related to stress, depression and/or anxiety; 27% related to musculoskeletal disorders and 24% to other causes there is much to be done to educate employers and steps to be taken to protect employees from further harm.???
Ill health rates are highest in: -?
Work Related Fatalities?
135 work related fatalities – the trend for fatalities is broadly static although there has been a slight increase post pandemic.? In 2023, 135 people like you and I went to work one day and didn’t come back home.? The primary cause of work-related fatalities is fall from height, claiming 40 lives, followed by being struck by a moving object (29); struck by a moving vehicle (20), trapped by an overturn or collapse (12) and contact with moving machinery (9).? And if killing 135 employees wasn’t bad enough, an additional 68 members of the public were killed due to work related accidents.?
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Work Related Injuries??
561,000 employees suffered a work-related injury, these are injuries that don’t fall into the specified injuries set out in RIDDOR, but cover any other injuries recorded by employers, e.g. slip and trip injuries, cuts, grazes, bumps and bruises etc.? Although they may be regarded as routine; analysis and understanding of the types, frequency, location within a business helps to identify opportunities to make improvements and reduce the risk of accident and injuries occurring in the first place.?
60,645 employees suffered a specified injury as set out in RIDDOR.? These are among the most serious work-related injuries and include fractures, amputation, eye injuries resulting in partial or full blindness in one or both eyes; crush injuries to the head or torso; burns (including scalding); any degree of scalping requiring hospital treatment; any loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia; any other injury arising from working in a confined space.? These are the most serious of injuries which may result in temporary or permanent health impairments, be life changing or life limiting in nature.??
Injury rates are highest in: -??
Working Days Lost??
35.2 million working days are lost every year through absence relating to work related injuries and ill health – that has a direct financial impact on employers and on the injured employees.??
Estimated Cost?
￡20.7 billion cost to the UK economy, every year, for failing to manage the risks to employees and others.??