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HSE confirms annual worker fatality increase

01 November 2018

THE HEALTH and Safety Executive (HSE) has released its annual statistics, which has revealed an annual increase in the number of fatal incidents and also a rise in the number of reported cases of worker injuries or ill-health.

Annual statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show 1.4 million workers were suffering from work-related ill health and around 555,000 from non-fatal injuries in 2017/18. This is up from 1.3 million reported cases in 2016/17 but the number of working days lost due to work-related illness and injury has decreased from 31.2 millions working days to 30.7 million working days. The total number of fatal injuries has rises from 137 to 144.

The annual statistics, compiled by HSE from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and other sources, cover work-related ill health, workplace injuries, working days lost, costs to Britain and enforcement action taken. Despite Britain continuing to be one of the safest places to work, key figures for Great Britain show that in 2017/18 there were:

  • 144 fatal injuries at work
  • 1.4 million working people suffering from a work-related illness
  • 30.7 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury
  • 493 cases were prosecuted and resulted in a conviction. Fines from convictions totalled £72.6 million

Workplace injury and new cases of ill health cost Britain £15.0 billion a year with 30.7 million working days lost.

There have been no significant changes in the industries in which workers are most likely to be injured by their work, with construction and agriculture among the higher risk sectors. These figures confirm the scale of the challenge HSE faces in making Britain a healthier and safer place to work and shows that there are still areas to improve on to prevent death, injury and ill health in the workplace.

HSE chair Martin Temple said of the findings: “These figures should serve as a reminder to us of the importance to manage risk and undertake good health and safety practice in the work place.

“Great Britain’s health and safety record is something we should all be proud of, but there is still much to be done to ensure that every worker goes home at the end of their working day safe and healthy.

“Collectively we must take responsibility to prevent these incidents that still affect too many lives every year, and continue to all play our part in Helping Great Britain Work Well.”

The full annual injury and ill-health statistics report can be found at:http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/

 
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