TOTAL SUSPECTED OCCUPATIONAL COVID-19 REPORTS MADE BY EMPLOYERS TO THE ENFORCING AUTHORITIES

Latest published figures up to week ending 12 December show:

· the number of occupational COVID-19 notifications made to enforcing authorities generally increased week-on-week between September and early November, peaking at 1,026 reports in week commencing 8 November. In more recent weeks the number of weekly reports has been broadly level, with 867 reports in the latest week.

· over the period 10 April - 12 December, 17,895 notifications of occupational COVID-19 in workers have been reported to enforcing authorities (HSE and LAs), including 223 death notifications. Of these reports, around a half have been made since early September in the second wave of employer reporting of occupational cases of COVID-19.

· the majority of reports received since 10 April were for workers in the Health and Social Work sector (including for example hospitals, residential homes and day care). Around two-thirds (65%) of reports were recorded by employers against these activities, although the actual percentage may be higher as it is known that many reports for this sector get mis-classified by employers, particularly to the accommodation sector and to other personal services.

· the proportion of reports recorded against Health and Social Work activities was higher in the first wave of reporting (April through August) than the second wave (September to date) - 78% compared with 53% - in part reflecting the re-opening of the economy in July with more reports now coming through from other sectors. In particular, Education and Manufacturing combined accounted for less than 2% of all first wave reports, but around 17% of all reports made so far in the second wave. It should be noted though that the RIDDOR notification system suffers from widespread under-reporting which has the potential to give a distorted view of both the scale and spread of cases by important risk factors such as industry sector.

· around 80% of all worker reported cases (fatal and non-fatal) since 10 April were in HSE enforced workplaces. This proportion was higher in the first wave of reporting (April through August) than the second wave (September to date) - 84% compared with 77% - largely reflecting the re-opening of the economy in July.

· 84% of worker COVID-19 reports received since 10 April were from workplaces in England, 8% in Wales and 8% in Scotland. This profile is broadly consistent in both the first and second wave of reporting.