Britain may be one of the safest places to work in Europe, but recently released figures have revealed that too many British workers are still being injured or made ill by work.
According to injury and ill-health statistics released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), an estimated 28.2 million working days were lost due to work related ill health or injury in 2013/14.
As a result, the cost to society from such injuries and new cases of ill health due to current working conditions is an estimated £14.2 billion (2012/13 figures based on 2012 prices).
The statistics show that, in 2013/14, there were;
- 133 fatal injuries – a fall from 150 the previous year.
- 77,593 other injuries reported under The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). That equates to 304.6 injuries per 100,000 employees.
- An estimated two million people in 2013/14 suffering from an illness they believed was caused or made worse by current or past work.
The industries in which workers are most likely to be injured by their jobs have not changed significantly – with construction (1900 major/specified injuries), agriculture (292 major/specified injuries), manufacturing (3159 major/specified injuries) and waste and recycling (486 major/specified injuries) among the higher risk sectors.
“These latest figures remind us what health and safety is really about,” commented Judith Hackitt, the chair of HSE. “We should remind ourselves what these numbers actually mean – the number of times in the last year someone went out to work and either did not return home to their loved ones or came home with life changing injuries.”
“The health numbers also demonstrate the scale of harm being done to people’s health while at work, too often leading to premature death,” she added.
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