British workplaces are amongst safest in world but work remains

by • News, Wellbeing

Although Britain remains one of the safest countries to work in the world, too many workers are still being injured or made ill by their work a new report shows. 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. 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 the HSE  claims to face 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.

Martin Temple, HSE Chair, 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.”