IN-DEPTH NEWS – INDUSTRY REPORT
Covid-19 shutdown credited for reducing annual
total of workplace fatalities by a third
The Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) has released its annual
gures for the number of workrelated
fatalities in 2019/20, as well as
the number of people known to have
died from the asbestos-related cancer,
mesothelioma, in 2018.
The provisional annual data for workrelated
fatal accidents (www.is.gd/equyuj)
reveals that 111 workers were fatally
injured at work between April 2019 and
March 2020 (a rate of 0.34 deaths per
100,000 workers), the lowest year on
record. This represents a reduction of
38 deaths on the previous year, although
the safety body says that it is likely that
the fall was accentuated by the impact of
Coronavirus on the economy in the nal
two months of the scal year.
In line with previous years’ fatal injury
statistics, these gures do not include
deaths from occupational disease. Covid-
19 infection is therefore not part of the
gures and will not feature in fatal injury
statistics in subsequent years.
HSE chief executive Sarah Albon says:
“No one should be hurt or killed by the
work they do. In these extraordinary
times, we have seen many workers risking
their lives to help others during the
Coronavirus outbreak. Although these
statistics are not a re ection on Covid-19
related loss of life, it is a pertinent time to
re ect.
“Every workplace fatality is a tragedy,
and while we are encouraged by this
improvement, today’s statistics are
a reminder that we cannot become
complacent as we look to continue to
work together to make Great Britain an
even safer place to live and work.”
The new gures show the spread of
fatal injuries across industrial sectors:
construction (40); agriculture, forestry
and shing (20); manufacturing (15);
transport and storage (11); administration
and support services (6); wholesale, retail,
motor repair, accommodation and food
(6); waste (5); and other (8).
The three most common causes of
fatal injuries, meanwhile, continue to be:
workers falling from height (29), being
struck by a moving vehicle (20) and being
struck by a moving object (18), accounting
for 60% of fatal injuries in 2019/20.
The new gures also continue to
highlight the risks to older workers: 27%
of fatal injuries in 2019/20 were to workers
aged 60 or over, even though such
workers make up only around 10% of the
workforce.
In addition, members of the public
continue to be killed in connection with
work-connected accidents. In 2019/20,
51 members of the public were killed as
a result of a work-connected accident
in workplaces where HSE enforces
safety rules, and a further 41 occurred
on railways (regulated by the O ce for
Road and Rail). Typically in recent years,
the number of such deaths has ranged
between 12 and 16 deaths annually.
Albon continues: “These statistics
remind us that in certain sectors of the
economy, fatal injury in the workplace
remains worryingly high. Agriculture,
forestry and shing accounts for a
small fraction of the workforce of Great
Britain, yet accounted for around 20% of
worker fatalities in the last year. This is
unacceptable and more must be done to
prevent such fatalities taking place.
“Work-related deaths fracture
families, they shatter communities, and
so many of them can be avoided. The
work that HSE does is about more than
numbers; we are continually working
with duty holders to ensure that they
assess and appropriately manage risk to
their employees. These e orts are a vital
part of keeping essential services going,
particularly as duty holders adapt to the
current circumstances.”
Mesothelioma, which is contracted
through past exposure to asbestos, is
one of the few work-related diseases
where deaths can be counted directly. It
killed 2,446 in Great Britain in 2018. This
is slightly lower than the average 2,550
over the previous ve years. According to
the HSE, the current gures are largely a
consequence of occupational asbestos
exposures that occurred before 1980.
A fuller assessment of work-related
ill-health and injuries, drawing on
HSE’s full range of data sources, will be
provided as part of the annual Health and
Safety Statistics release in November.
Main kinds of fatal accident for workers Fatal injuries to workers by main industry
Agriculture, forestry
and shing 20
Construction 40
Admin and support services, 6
Wholesale, retail, motor,
repair; accommodation
and food, 6
Transport and
storage 11
Manufacturing 15
Waste 5 Other 8
Falls from a height
Struck by moving vehicle
Struck by moving object
Trapped by something
collapsing/overturning
Contact with moving machinery
29
20
18
15
11
16 www.operationsengineer.org.uk Autumn 2020
/equyuj)
/www.operationsengineer.org.uk