British fatality rate almost a quarter that of Ireland
Thanks to Health & Safety Review for this article.
TINA WEADICK
The number of workers killed in occupational accidents in Great Britain dropped to 123 last year, prompting the head of the country’s health and safety regulator to claim that Britain is “one of the safest places in the world to work”.
The Health and Safety Executive’s Sarah Albon was commenting on the workplace fatality figures for 2021/2022, published by the regulator in July. They covered the period from April 2021 to March 2022, during which time most pandemic restrictions were lifted and the British economy began returning to normal.
Despite the upturn in economic activity, 22 fewer fatalities were recorded in this period compared with the previous year, when Covid-19 restrictions were in full force. (Note that these figures do not include deaths from occupational diseases or occupational exposures, including Covid-19 itself.)
The rate of fatal injury per 100,000 workers also continued the long-term downward trend and now sits at 0.38. In Ireland, by comparison, the fatal injury rate in 2021 was, at 1.5, almost four times higher.
The highest numbers of work-related deaths occurred in construction (30), agriculture, forestry and fishing (22) and manufacturing (22). The most common causes of fatal injuries were, as in previous years, falling from height (29), being struck by a moving vehicle (23) and being struck by a moving object (18). Workers aged 60 and over accounted for just under a quarter of the deaths (29).
While welcoming the decline in the workplace fatality figures, Sarah Albon emphasised that “every loss of life is a tragedy and [the HSE is] committed to making workplaces safer and holding employers to account for their actions, as part of our mission to protect people and places”.
Construction safety
However, one of Britain’s biggest unions has accused the regulator of being “either unwilling or unable to ensure the safety of workers in construction” – the sector with the highest number of worker fatalities.
On foot of a series of Freedom of Information requests, the Unite union discovered that unannounced site inspections by the HSE declined by 31% between 2013/14 and 2021/22.
Said general secretary Sharon Graham: “Construction is a dangerous industry, made more dangerous by unscrupulous employers who risk workers’ lives by ignoring safety laws. If the HSE fails to ensure safety, then deaths and injuries will increase.”
Workplace Fatal Injuries in Great Britain, 2022 can be downloaded from: www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/pdf/fatalinjuries.pdf
This article is reproduced courtesy of Health & Safety Review.
