Height safety campaign hits milestone

Launched in 2024, No Falls Week aims to raise awareness about the importance of safe working at height, prevent falls and ensure everyone that works at height comes down safely.

It is estimated over 1 million businesses, and 10 million workers, carry out work involving some form of working at height every year. No Falls Week provides the opportunity for organisations across all sectors to place a focus on work at height safety.

Falls from height are consistently the leading cause of workplace fatalities in the UK, with 35 people losing their lives at work due to a fall from height in 2024/2025. Latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show that falls from height were responsible for almost one third of all workplace deaths last year. This is almost twice as many as the second most common kind of accident, ‘Struck by a moving vehicle’. This latest figure may represent an 8% reduction from 2023/24, however, prior to that, the proportion of falls from height continued to rise, reaching an unacceptable 36% last year.

As awful as the fatality statistics are, there are an even greater number of non-fatal injuries resulting from a fall from height, with almost 5,000 people in Great Britain having been reported injured at work in 2024/25. However, the No Falls Foundation know there is substantial underreporting of non-fatal falls from height for all workers, particularly the self-employed, who were found to report just 12% of workplace incidents. According to the self-reported accidents from their preferred source, the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the HSE estimates the number of workplace falls from height over the last 10 years may be up to 425,000 (between 2014 – 2024).

Along with the lives, families and businesses affected by these accidents, up to 416,000 working days were lost through non-fatal falls from height in Great Britain in 2024/25 alone.

Not only that, the latest figures from 2024/25 show the total cost of falls from height was estimated to be over £764 million, made up of costs to the employer and the individual, government tax losses and benefit payments⁸.

Hannah Williams, charity manager at the No Falls Foundation, said: “It’s great to see No Falls Week going from strength to strength. Reaching – and now exceeding – 5,000 registered participants is a significant milestone for the campaign, and we’re delighted to see organisations of all sizes, across all sectors, throw their weight behind this important height safety initiative.

“Too many people are still being killed falling from height. Everyone who needs to work at height should be able to work safely and return home unharmed at the end of every shift. That’s why No Falls Week is so important. If we work together, we can prevent avoidable deaths and injuries.”

Organisations can sign up to get involved in the week-long campaign via the No Falls Week website, where there are a host of toolkits and resources from members of the Access Industry Forum (AIF) to help organisations plan activities during No Falls Week.

For further information and to sign up for No Falls Week, please visit: https://nofallsweek.org/get-involved/