What do the latest workplace accident statistics tell us?

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has recently released summary statistics on health and safety at work in the UK for 2020/2021.

The latest workplace accident statistics show that the 142 workers were killed at work in 2020-2021. This figure is above the five-year average of 138. In North West England there were 16 fatalities.

What were the main causes of accidents at work?

The main categories of fatal accidents for workers were falls from height (35); struck by a moving vehicle (25); and struck by a moving object (17). The industry sectors where most fatalities happened were construction (39) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (34).

While construction has the highest number of fatalities, when the rate of fatal injury per 100,000 workers is calculated, agriculture, forestry and fishing have a much higher rate.

How did COVID-19 affect workplace deaths?

The HSE has also updated its figures in relation to COVID-19. From 10 April 2020 to 17 July 2021, there were 34,126 COVID-19 notifications where exposure at work was suspected, including 405 deaths.

The peak for notifications was reached in January 2021 at circa 1,500 per week. However, from April to July 2021 this declined to 100 to 200 per week.

The main sectors affected by job-acquired COVID-19 are health and social care (50%), education (11%), public administration and defence (9%) and manufacturing (5%).