Manufacturing accident rates

Thursday, 11 November 2010

New stats

New statistics released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have revealed that the UK has the lowest rate of workplace fatalities and one of the lowest rates of work related ill health in Europe.

Rates of workplace injuries and ill-health are steadily declining each year in Britain, with the number of workers fatally injured at work last year reducing by around 15% compared to the year 2008-2009. Around 26,000 major injuries, including amputations and burns, occurred at work in 2009-2010, compared with nearly 28,000 the previous year.

The figures are encouraging, but the HSE is quick to highlight that further improvements can still be made and that many thousands of people are still suffering injuries serious enough to cause them to be absent from work for a period of time.

Judith Hackitt, Chair of the HSE, said: “It is encouraging to see further reduction in the number of people being killed and seriously injured at work. We now need to ensure that the improvements which are being made continue. Every statistic represents an individual or a family which is now suffering as a result of health and safety failings at work.”

Unfortunately, the statistics demonstrate that the number of people suffering from an illness caused or worsened by work is actually increasing. Last year, around 1.3 million people reported that they were suffering from an illness caused or aggravated by their workplace activity, an increase from 1.2 million in 2008-2009. An estimated 555,000 of these related to new illnesses occurring during the year. Many retired workers also claim to still suffer from an illness related to their former work.

Judith Hackitt explains: “Britain remains one of the safest places to work in the EU and we are rightly proud of this record. The challenge now is to focus on those areas where improvement is slow to emerge.

“[...] These statistics also remind us yet again of the significant gains which are yet to be made in reducing harm caused to people’s health by work.”

“Work related injuries and cases of ill-health have a high personal cost for those involved, and they also have a significant impact on the country’s economy. Last year alone, 28.5 million working days were lost as a result of injury and ill-health.

"The HSE figures also show that they took legal action against 1,026 serious offences by companies for failing to manage safety sufficiently. Not complying with regulations and failing to follow good health and safety practice is a costly business. In hard times like this, training is often the first thing to be dropped, but this is false economy and can have a significant impact on worker’s safety.”