BETTER SAFETY IS SAVING MORE LIVES THAN EVER!
New figures for the year to 31st March 2015 have been released which show that the UK is one of the safest places to work in Europe, having one of the lowest rates of fatal injuries to workers in leading industrial nations. At 0.58 per 100,000 workers, this is below the next best (Netherlands) at 0.72 and less than half the EU average of 1.30. Workers in Latvia are 9 times more likely to be killed at work with 4.70 deaths per 100,000 workers in any one year.
However, HSE’s Chair points out that any death is a tragedy. Judith Hackitt said: “Every fatality is a tragic event and our commitment to preventing loss of life in the workplace remains unaltered. All workplace fatalities drive HSE to develop even more effective interventions to reduce death, injury and ill health.”
Within Construction, 35 fatal injuries to workers were recorded – a rate of 1.62 deaths per 100,000 workers, compared to an average of 45 deaths in the past five years and a decrease from the 44 deaths recorded in 2013/14 but still 3 times more likely than average for GB industry. So although any fatality is tragic, fortunately through continuing hard work and good practice, they are becoming rarer.
Far more numerous are the major injuries or the over 3 day or over 7 day injuries which frequently end in workers leaving the industry. Although these have fallen to 6479 last year, there is a lot of scope to reduce these.
In 1995 when Bernie first formed the company, the comparable figures were 7.7 deaths per 100,000 (all industries) and 83 deaths in Construction with 13,131 major and 3 day injuries so it’s good to think that all the effort going into ‘Safety’ is making a difference.
Got a view? Send an email to bsims@bsims.co.uk Subject: Has health and safety got better?
For the full article see the HSE press release: