Safety Newsletter No 76 - The HSE published 2023/24 statistics for fatal injuries at work

The HSE has published the 2023/24 statistics for fatal injuries at work.

The headline will read that such fatalities are up year-on-year. However, a quick look

will show that they are only up by two, remaining broadly flat on the long-term trend.

What the figures also show is that over 35% of these are down to the self-employed,

overwhelmingly in two sectors; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, and, in Construction.

There were 88 fatal injuries to employees over the whole of Great Britain.

And, while again the headline shows that the above two sectors are the most dangerous to work in, that number is significantly reduced when you strip out the self-employed. And, in another important statistic, over 34% were over the age of 60 and given the type of employment sector, male.

Nevertheless, there is no getting away from the fact that Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing is still dangerous - 7.51 workers died per 100,000, 5.45 employees. Although the total figures are more than double in Construction, the sector is considerably larger. 2.43 workers and 1.74 employees have died per 100,000.

The leading cause of death? Falls from a height, accounting for 50 of these. That is followed by deaths from a moving vehicle, of which there were 23. These two causes account for more than 50% of overall deaths.

Looking at the ONS figures is also revealing - across the whole of Britain, the rate is 0.42 per 100,000 workers. Regionally, it varies little for employees - a GB average of 0.31 and the highest rate is Scotland at 0.33

But, for the self-employed it is more than 3 times that of employees, 1.04, and don’t even think about going to Scotland (2.98), Wales (1.47), the North West (2.46) or the South West (1.55). Especially, presumably, if you are approaching retirement age.

Obviously, the aim of the HSE is to continue to reduce such fatal accidents, and any death is a tragedy on a personal level. But it is worth putting these figures in context.

For instance, how do we compare to the rest of Europe, even though we have left?

These figures are reported on a Europe wide basis, though the latest figures we could find are for 2021. Nevertheless, they give us a good idea, as the GB rate has stayed relatively static. If our rate is 0.42 per 100,000 workers, across the whole of the EU, the average rate was 1.75. That would make us more than four times safer.

On a country by country basis, we are only beaten by the Netherlands (0.33), and it is interesting to note that in the Netherlands a fatal accident at work is only counted when the person dies the same day. We do not have a time limit.

And, in a worst-case scenario, the UK appears 10 times safer than Latvia, and more than 6 times safer than France.

Finally, looking at the latest confirmed statistics, 540,000 people a year died in 2022 in the UK. In 2021, nearly 10,000 died of alcohol related causes. If we want to reduce the number of avoidable deaths, we obviously still have to keep our guard up at work, but there are other areas where we can concentrate our resources as well.

The BackupHR team would be pleased to advise you on any element of the issues arising from this newsletter.