Health and Safety

Health and Safety Facts and Figures

2 June 2009

Statistics relating to workplace health and safety issues.

Health and safety failures cost British employers between £3.3 billion and £6.5 billion every year (1).
There were 241 fatal injuries to workers in 2006/07 a rate of 0.8 per 100,000 workers, an increase of 11% on the 2005/05 figures (9).
35.7 million working days were lost in 2006/07 from people taking time off because of their illnesses (3).
Over 25,000 people are forced to give up work every year as a result of work-related accidents and ill heath (4).
In 2006/07 an estimated 2.2 million people suffered from ill health that they thought was work-related (9).
Each year over one million injuries and 2.3 million cases of ill-health are experienced by workers (4).
More than half-a-million people suffer from work-related stress, or from an illness that they believe to have resulted from work-related stress. (5).
Back disorders are the most common form of ill health at work (6).
The were 30,213 major injuries to employees in 2004/05. There were 30,817 in 2003/04. (Over a third was caused by slipping and tripping) (2).
In 2004/05 there were 120,346 injuries to employees causing them to be off work for over three days. (Two fifths were caused by handling, lifting or carrying) (2).
The number of members of the public fatally injured in 2004/05 is 361 (7).
2037 people died of mesothelioma (2005), and thousands more from other occupational cancers and lung diseases (9).
Falls from height are the most common cause of death and the second most common cause of major injury to employees (8).