Statistics on death and injury



A 2014 TUC report, Toxic, corrosive and hazardous – the government’s record on health and safety, sets out that changes to reporting over recent years mean it is now much harder to make comparisons with previous years.



Official statistics


“The HSE has carried out self-reported work-related illness (SWI) surveys since 1990. These are of people who have conditions that they think have been caused or made worse by their current or past work. From 2003-04 these were done every year but in 2011-12 this was changed to once every two years, so work-related ill health data was not collected in 2012-13. This is a major loss and makes a big dent in the statistics,” says the TUC.



“However, the biggest loss was caused by the changes to RIDDOR. Now only injuries that lead to more than seven days’ absence from full duties (previously three days) are reportable, and the criteria have changed. This means it is impossible to make accurate comparisons.”



The HSE publishes details of reported incidents, broken down by type of incident, geographical region and sector on its website (www.hse.gov.uk/statistics). In 2015-16:


• 1.3 million working people were suffering from a work-related illness;


• there were 2,515 mesothelioma deaths due to past asbestos exposures (2014);


• 144 workers were killed at work;


• there were 72,702 other injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR;


• 621,000 injuries occurred at work according to the Labour Force Survey;


• 30.4 million working days were lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury; and


• the estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions was £14.1 billion (in 2014-15)


The government relies on the official HSE fatality statistics to sustain its argument that Britain’s workplaces are becoming safer and that consequently, less regulation is needed. But the figure is badly distorted for a number of reasons.


It only includes deaths that happen relatively quickly, as a result of sudden injury, excluding many thousands of people who die from diseases caused or exacerbated by work, such as work-related cancers or mesothelioma, or from an injury that leads to a later death. The TUC describes occupational disease as a “time bomb” which kills at least 100 times the number who die in workplace “accidents”.


The figure excludes all work-related road traffic incidents, and all deaths reported to other authorities apart from the HSE, as well as suicides as a result of work-related depression. In addition, there is also significant under-reporting of accidents to the regulator.



Estimate of real numbers



The Hazards Campaign’s The Whole Story report says that “Failing to expose the impact of employers’ non-compliance and criminal negligence means that the actual risks that workers and members of the public face are underestimated and that cuts continue to be made to our health, safety and welfare regulation and enforcement”.


The reality, says Hazards, is that far more workers than officially reported suffer appalling working conditions that put them at risk of injury, death or illness. It has compiled figures showing that there are:


• eight times as many deaths caused by work incidents – at least 1,174;


• four times as many work-illness deaths – approximately 50,000;


• five times as many people made ill by work than the HSE estimate – at least six million.


It arrives at these figures as follows:


• in addition to the 144 workers killed in reportable (RIDDOR) incidents in 2015-16, there were also around 50 people killed at sea and in the air, 577 workers killed in road traffic incidents, 300 suicides due to the pressure of work, and 103 members of the public killed by work activity;


• around 18,000 people die of work-related cancers, 20,000 from work-related heart disease, 6,000 from work-related respiratory disease and around 6,000 from other work-related diseases; and


• 12% of the 2.5 million people living with cancer in the UK are estimated to be work-related – 285,000 cases; 20% of the seven million people living with cardiovascular disease in the UK are estimated to be work-related cases (approximately 1.4 million); 20% of the 12.7 million people living with lung disease in the UK are estimated to be work-related cases (approximately 1.9 million); and 50% of the 4.6 million people living with a common mental health problem are estimated as work-related (2.3 million).



Every year unions publicise the real work-related toll of death and injury as they mark International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April and “Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living ” (https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/workers-memorial-day).