A real success story! Fewer injuries, fewer deaths, better safety at work

How often do you read the newspaper or talk to your friends and hear tales of the ‘stupidity’ of the ‘Elf & Safety’ culture in the UK. Well, if you are in the UK safety world hold your head up and be proud! Recent statistics show that fewer and fewer people each year are being harmed at work and in fact as a country we lead the world in low rates of safety incidents.

Each day in the USA approx two or three times as many people suffer injury or death at work per 100,000 workers than in the UK! Looking at the statistics, this means there are several hundred people living today who under other countries safety regimes would have been dead or seriously injured and that is just in the last couple of years. Take that back over the previous 10 or 20 years and our achievement is astounding.

The BSIF and its members are pleased to be a very significant part of this achievement, but everyone in the safety world deserves strong praise. Lord Young’s recent report laid out plans to improve the standing of health and safety in the UK and the BSIF fully supports these. The safety world is an easy target, particularly where over-zealous risk assessments prevent accidents by preventing any activity. Proportionality is the new buzz word.

However, despite the detractors we are a real success story. Fewer injuries, fewer deaths, better safety at work. World leaders and we should be proud of it.