Lawford Kidd's Blog

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published updated guidance for employers on how to protect the health, safety and welfare of their workers.

The move follows a recent public consultation over the changes, which were proposed after Professor Ragnar Löfsted’s 2011 review found that the Workplace Regulations Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) was in need of updating.

Workplace Regulations ACOP

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 cover a wide range of basic health, safety and welfare issues and are applicable to most work environments except for those involving work on construction sites, those who work in or on a ship and those who work below ground at a mine.

Although reports of workers suffering serious or fatal injuries in the course of their work continue to occur too frequently, recent figures indicate that there has been a fall in the overall number of major injuries arising in the workplace.

Significant decline in major injuries

According to the latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive, the incidence of major injuries has fallen 11% this year compared to 2011/12.

Looking at the figures in more detail, they show that in Britain between April 2012 and March 2013:

There was a slight increase in the number of workers killed in Scotland last year, despite an overall fall across Great Britain, according to new provisional statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Great Britain as a whole saw 148 workers fatally injured between April 2012 and March 2013, compared with 172 in the previous year, says the HSE. This means that the overall rate of fatal injury has dropped to 0.5 per 100,000 workers, below the five-year average of 0.6.

In Scotland, however, 22 fatal injuries were recorded – a rate of 0.9 deaths per 100,000 workers – and while this matches the average of 22 deaths in the past five years it is an increase from the 19 deaths recorded in 2011/12.

The risks facing workers across Scotland would appear to be increasing rather than falling, as the latest provisional figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reveal that 20 workers lost their lives while at work in Scotland last year - an increase of six on the previous year.

HSE disappointment

The HSE has expressed its disappointment at the figures, and has called on business to rethink workplace safety provisions and to focus on real risk in an attempt to bring the numbers down.

On Saturday 28th April, unions and safety campaigners around the world will be marking Workers' Memorial Day and remembering the two million men and women who die every year as a result of work-related accidents and diseases.

In the UK over 20,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of injuries or accidents caused by their work. As well as remembering the dead, the day also serves as a reminder that workplace-related deaths are not inevitable and can be prevented.

This year the TUC is calling on unions and safety campaigners to make 28th April a day of action to defend health and safety from attacks by the press, politicians and employers.