The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) last week (23 November) published its annual statistics on work-related ill health and workplace injuries, showing the fatal injury rate for waste is around 11 times the all industry rate.
Alongside the annual statistics on work-related ill health and workplace injuries, the HSE published a separate breakdown for the waste industry.
The statistics show there were an estimated 3,000 workers who sustained non-fatal injuries at work each year averaged over the seven-year period 2015/16-2021/22.
There was one fatal injury to a worker in 2021/22. This is in comparison with the annual average number of five fatalities for 2017/18-2021/22, though statistically speaking numbers are small and prone to annual fluctuations. 37% of deaths over the same five-year period were classified as “struck by moving vehicle”.
The fatal injury rate (4.61 per 100,000 workers) is around 11 times the all industry rate, the figures show.
Today’s results show there is still a considerable amount of work to do in improving workplace safety in the UK
There were an estimated 5,000 work-related ill health cases annually (new or long-standing). Around 79% of these were suffering from musculoskeletal disorders or stress, depression or anxiety. The remaining workers were suffering from other types of illness, such as skin or respiratory conditions.
Ben Henderson, Head of Product Solution Consulting at Intelex EMEA, a global provider of cloud-based environmental, health, safety and quality (EHSQ) management software, said: “Today’s results show there is still a considerable amount of work to do in improving workplace safety in the UK. At Intelex, we know that one of the easiest ways for employers to improve workplace safety is by removing barriers and making it easy for employees to do the right thing.
“Technology can play a central role in helping to foster a workplace culture that puts safety at its heart. Giving health and safety professionals’ access to the information they need quickly and efficiently, allowing them to produce accurate and timely reports, makes it easy to communicate actions that need to be taken up and down the business.”
All industry figures
All industry figures show, the estimated number of workers in Great Britain suffering a work-related illness is 1.8 million with stress, depression, and anxiety making up around half of cases, new figures show.
The figures from Great Britain’s workplace regulator show there were an estimated 914,000 cases of work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2021/22.
An estimated 17 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2021/22. This is over half of all working days lost due to work-related ill health.
HSE has been warning of a growing crisis in stress and poor mental health related to work. The workplace regulator launched a major campaign last year to remind employers of their responsibilities to their employees’ mental health.
HSE’s Chief Executive, Sarah Albon, said: “Stress and poor mental health is the number one cause of work-related ill health. The effects of stress, depression, and anxiety can have a significant impact on an employee’s life and on their ability to perform their best at work.
Britain is one of the safest places in the world to work but we need all employers to do more and take seriously their responsibilities to support good mental health at work.
“Britain is one of the safest places in the world to work but we need all employers to do more and take seriously their responsibilities to support good mental health at work.
“That’s why improving mental health in the workplace is a key priority in our 10-year strategy ‘Protecting People and Places’, and why we’re developing new partnerships across industry to help employers support their employees.”
HSE’s annual statistics release shows the impact work-related ill health is having on Great Britain’s economic performance:
- 36.8 million working days were lost due to work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injuries in 2021/22.
- The annual economic cost of work-related injury and new cases of ill health (excluding long latency illnesses such as cancer) was £18.8 billion in 2019/20.
The figures also show that 123 workers were killed in work-related accidents in 2021/22 and a further 565,000 workers sustained a non-fatal injury.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact on the workplace. Of the 1.8 million suffering a work-related illness, an estimated 585,000 reported it was caused or made worse by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Around a quarter of these workers were in human health and social work. In addition, 123,000 workers suffering with COVID-19 believed they were exposed to the virus at work.
