The Health and Safety Executive has released its annual statistics for workplace injuries and ill health and has seen no significant change for the construction sector
Despite being a high risk sector for workplace injuries throughout the UK, the construction sector’s injury and ill health numbers remain consistent for another year.
The report shows 1.4 million workers suffered from work related ill health and an estimated 555,000 from non-fatal injuries in 2017/18.
Although Britain continues to be one of the safest places to work, key figures for Great Britain show that in 2017/18 there were;
- 144 fatal injuries at work
- 1.4 million working people suffering from a work-related illness
- 30.7 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury
- 493 cases were prosecuted and resulted in a conviction. Fines from convictions totalled £72.6 million
These figures confirm the scale of the challenge HSE faces in making Britain a healthier and safer place to work and shows that there are still areas to improve on to prevent death, injury and ill health in the workplace.
Further findings from the report have revealed that workplace injury and new cases of ill health cost Britain £15.0 billion a year with 30.7 million working days lost.
Martin Temple, HSE Chair, said of the findings: “These figures should serve as a reminder to us of the importance to manage risk and undertake good health and safety practice in the work place.
“Great Britain’s health and safety record is something we should all be proud of, but there is still much to be done to ensure that every worker goes home at the end of their working day safe and healthy.
“Collectively we must take responsibility to prevent these incidents that still affect too many lives every year, and continue to all play our part in Helping Great Britain Work Well.”
The full annual injury and ill-health statistics report can be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/
