Annual HSE Health & Safety Statistics 2024

In the last few weeks, HSE has published the latest annual health and safety statistics for Great Britain.

It shows some very interesting figures from 2023/24, perhaps the most surprising is that 1.7 million working people suffered from a work-related illness, down 100,000 from last year. This highlights that businesses have been to taking action to prevent occupational ill-health and need to continue to do so, to bring it down further, however 70,000 MORE workers are suffering from a work-related musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) so further training and support is required.

The statistics show that, although Britain remains one of the safest places to work in the world (The UK consistently has one of the lowest rates of fatal injury across Europe), too many workers are still being injured or made ill by their work.

These statistics cover work-related ill health, workplace injuries, working days lost, costs to Britain and enforcement action taken and are compiled using the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and other sources. The LFS is a national survey run by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Currently, around 36,000 households are surveyed each quarter. HSE commissions annual questions in the LFS to gain a view of self-reported work-related illness and workplace injury based on individuals’ perceptions. The analysis and interpretation of this data are the sole responsibility of HSE.

It goes without saying that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted recent trends in health and safety statistics published by HSE and this should be considered when comparing across time periods. You can view the full details on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on health and safety statistics here

Key figures for Great Britain show that in 2023/24 there were:

• 1.7 million working people suffering from a work-related illness, of which
  • 776,000 workers suffering work-related stress, depression or anxiety (99,000 less than last year)
  • 543,000 workers suffering from a work-related musculoskeletal disorder (70,000 MORE than last year)
• 138 workers killed in work-related accidents
• 33.7 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury
• £21.6 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2022 to 2023)

• 2,257 mesothelioma deaths due to past asbestos exposures (2022) down by just 11 people compared to last year. Annual mesothelioma deaths are expected to reduce over the period 2022 to 2030. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the rate of annual new cases of occupational asthma seen by chest physicians had been increasing with 19,000 Estimated new cases of breathing or lung problems caused or made worse by work each year on average over the last 3 years
• 138 workers killed in work-related accidents (3 more than last year)
• 604,000 working people sustained an injury at work according to the Labour Force Survey (43,000 MORE than last year)
• 61,663 injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR (1,018 MORE than last year)
• 33.7 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury (1.5 million less than last year which was 1.6 million less than the year before so this is bucking a trend)
• £21.6 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2022 to 2023) (nearly £1 billion MORE than last year which was nearly £2 billion more than the year before so this has reduced massively over the 2 years. Total costs include financial costs and human costs. Financial costs cover loss of output, healthcare costs and other payments made. Human costs are the monetary valuation given to pain, grief, suffering and loss of life but excludes long latency illness such as cancer

Industries with statistically significantly higher rates of work-related ill health compared to the average rate across all industries were Human health/social work, Public administration/defence and Education and those industries that had statistically significantly higher workplace non-fatal injury rates compared to the average rate were Transportation/storage, Construction, Wholesale/retail trade/repair of motor vehicles.

You can view the full statistics here

Preventing occupational ill health should be a key focus for any business. Not only is it a legal requirement to protect the health of your workers (and visitors), but improving the management of worker health and wellbeing will also bring tangible business benefits and protects your most important asset: your reputation. This is where Acorn Health & Safety Ltd can help.

Our ‘Hassle Free’ consultancy service makes sure that your business’s health and safety are ‘Hassle Free’ so you can focus on what you and your organisation do best. In addition to accessing competent health and safety advice, you’ll also benefit from a written health and safety policy and an annual review of such, a suite of documents, forms and templates with your company logo on with the use of our online portal to access them all, plus monthly e-zines, safety talks and support to help keep safety on the agenda, face to face meeting at your premises plus a 10% discount on all Acorn Health and Safety training courses including our IOSH courses – Managing Safely and Working Safely – both designed to help you understand your legal obligations and take practical steps to manage health risks more effectively.

If you are unsure of when to report an accident to RIDDOR, read our general advice and guidance on accident reporting here 

To help prevent workplace injury, make sure your Risk Assessments are all up to date. If you are confused by risk assessments, we offer a 3-hour Risk Assessment course which leaves delegates with a clear understanding of the risk assessment process. We look at several different risk assessment templates (including your own) and complete a number of practical exercises and including the following:

• The law
• Why a risk assessment is important
• The competent person
• Definition of common terms
• The five steps of risk assessment
• Practical exercises

We also offer 8 Manual Handling training courses to help with musculoskeletal disorders and we are excellent at adapting courses to suit the particular customer needs and making manual handling training both relevant and enjoyable to help you not fall into the statistics

If you are unclear about the Health & Safety legislation required for your company, please contact us. Whether you require support with a one-off assessment or a complete health and safety management system we can help.