By Heather Vyse & Rhian Greaves, DAC Beachcroft

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has published its annual statistics setting out the number of work-related fatal injuries in the year April 2023 to March 2024. Although the data is provisional, it gives a good indication as to how industry sectors are managing their risks, and includes:

• Deaths reported to the main enforcement bodies for health and safety (HSE, local authorities, Office for Nuclear Regulation and Office of Rail and Road) under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations; and
• Deaths to members of the public from work-related activities.

The headline figures show that 138 workers were killed in work-related incidents in 2023/24, an increase of two (1.5%) on the previous year, and a total of 87 members of the public sustained fatal injuries, which is an increase of 14 deaths (19%)

In analysing the trends, it is clear that this year’s figures are similar to those recorded in the last year, 2022/2023, and consistent with data last seen prior to the Covid-19 pandemic; equivalent to data from 2016/17 where there was a similar number of work-related deaths, but fewer than the year 2018/19, where there were 149 worker fatalities.

The data is helpfully filtered to show where most of the fatal incidents are occurring. 110 (80%) of fatal injuries in 2022/23 occurred within five industry sectors :

• Construction: consistent with previous years, this sector had the highest number of fatalities, with a total of 51 fatal injuries recorded, an increase of six (13%) from the previous year.
• Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing: this sector saw 23 fatal injuries, a decrease of one from the previous year.
• Manufacturing: the manufacturing sector had 16 fatal injuries, which is also a decrease of one (6%) from the previous year.
• Transportation and Storage: the number of work-place fatalities fell by two from the previous year of 13.

Whist the construction industry continues to have the highest number of fatalities out of all of the sectors, the HSE has considered the fatal injury rate by looking at the number of fatalities per 100,000 workers employed. The calculation shows that the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector appears to be the least safe, with waste and recycling in second place. These figures remain consistent with those from 2022/2023 and demonstrates that the sectors of agriculture, forestry and fishing, and waste, statistically pose the greatest risk to workers’ health and safety.

Falls from height and being struck by a moving vehicle or object remain the main causes of fatal injury. Combined, they have accounted for more than half of all fatalities every year since 2001/02.  In the year to March 2024:

• 50 of the fatal injuries recorded were attributable to falls from height, accounting for 36% of all work-related deaths in this period, reflecting the significant risks posed by working at height
• Being struck by a moving vehicle accounted for 25 fatal injuries to workers, representing 18% of the total number of deaths in 2022/23
• Being struck by a moving, flying or falling object made up 14% of the fatal injuries sustained.

The trends show that incidents of work-related fatal injuries are predominantly to male workers. In 2023/24, 131 male workers suffered fatal injuries, which accounted for 95% of the deaths recorded. This is a similar proportion to previous years.

The highest rate of fatal injury is also to older workers in the 65+ age bracket; with workers aged 60-64 having a rate around twice the ‘all ages’ rate, and workers aged 65 and over having a rate that is three times as high as the ‘all ages’ rate. The rate of fatal injuries per 100,000 workers for ages 60-64 is 0.71 and for 65+ is 1.50. By contrast, the age bracket 35-44 has a rate of 0.29 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers.

This is consistent with previous trends and demonstrates that the risk of fatal injury in the work-place increases with age.

Just over a third, 36% of fatalities, were sustained by the self-employed. This has been consistent in recent years, despite the number of self-employed workers only making up around 15% of the total workforce.

This is particularly evident in the high-risk sectors of agriculture, forestry and fishing, where the fatal injury rate to self-employed workers is around twice the rate of fatal injury to employed workers.

Sixty-eight members of the public were killed as a result of work-related incidents, with 59 (87%) of those occurring in the services sector i.e. retail, accommodation and food, transportation, public administration (including education, health and social work) and arts, entertainment and recreation.

This is a decrease from the 88 deaths in 2021/22 and is significantly below the number of deaths to members of the public prior to the pandemic.

Whilst there has been a long-term declining trend in the number of fatal incidents in the workplace since the mid-2000s, both to workers and members of the public, it is clear that certain sectors and workplace activities continue to pose significant risk.

The period 2023/24 has seen an increase of two (1.5%) worker deaths, up from 136 the year before. However, in the construction sector, there has been 51 fatalities in this year which is an increase of six (13%) from the previous year.

The number of deaths within construction has continued to rise year-on-year since the pandemic, and the average number of worker deaths in construction in the last two years is statistically significantly higher than the pre-pandemic period.

The construction, agriculture, farming and forestry and waste sectors pose the biggest risk to workers’ health and safety, based on the data. It is therefore vital that businesses working in these sectors consider their management of health and safety and assess activities posing risk to those affected by their undertaking.

Meanwhile, it is falls from height and being struck by an object or moving vehicle, which remain the most high risk workplace activities. Based on these statistics, employers need to ensure that these work activities are suitably and sufficiently risk assessed, and that robust control measures are put in place to mitigate those risks.

The statistics also show that the rate of fatal injury is higher to older workers and reinforces the need for businesses to ensure that they have suitable training programmes with refresher training, and toolbox talks, being delivered to employees on a regular basis.

Members of the public are most at risk in the services sector (i.e. retail, accommodation and food, transportation, public administration including education, health and social work and arts, entertainment and recreation) with 78 deaths to members of the public recorded as occurring in 2023/24, in contrast to nine deaths in other industry sectors. Businesses in these industries need to be aware of how their operations can impact on members of the public and have suitable risk assessments in place to safeguard their customers, as well as their staff.

Despite the statistics, the HSE has abolished its’ specialist divisions.  Prospect, a trade union, has previously warned that the number of investigations undertaken by the HSE has dropped since the pandemic, suggested to be due to a lack of public funding and staff numbers.

However, pre-election, the Labour Party pledged to increase statutory protections for workers, particularly in relation to environmental concerns, for example breathing in polluted air, and working in extreme temperatures. In the build up to the election, Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, also spoke about increased enforcement and new legal protections to workers.

The onus is on businesses to proactively manage their health and safety risks; these statistics should inform businesses as to the real risks that are present in the workplace, but the data will also act as a prompt to regulators to inform their risk based approach to targeted inspection and enforcement.

In the event of a fatality or serious injury, organisations are at risk of large fines should a prosecution follow a regulatory investigation. Similarly, individuals face a real risk of a custodial sentence for the most serious breaches of health and safety law. It is therefore essential that businesses have robust health and safety systems and processes in place, train their employees accordingly, and ensure effective safety standards are driven from the top down.

Accidents and risks at work will be the topic of the Health and Safety Network’s next best practice group on 19 September at 10am. You can book your place here