Statistics for 2022/2023 period released by Health and Safety Executive
Last week the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published their annual work-related fatal injuries statistics for Great Britain, for the period 2022 – 2023. These statistics are derived from incidents and accidents reported to the HSE under RIDDOR (the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations).
135 workers were killed in work-related incidents in Great Britain during the last year, giving a fatal injury rate of 0.41 deaths per 100,000 workers. This figure is broadly in-line with trends recorded over previous years and similar to pre-coronavirus levels.
From raw data alone, the industry with the highest number of deaths is construction (45), followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing (21) and manufacturing (15). The number of injuries associated with construction has increased by 16 from the previous year, although the five-year average for fatal injuries in this sector remains 37. The number of deaths associated with agriculture, forestry and fishing has decreased by 2 compared to the previous period, with a five-year average of 26.
Using the fatal injury metric, forestry and fishing come out worst – by a significant margin; the rate of fatal injury to workers in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors is 21 times as high as the ‘all industry’ rate. The rate of fatal injury in construction is around 4 times as high as the average rate across all industries.
In 2022/23, 40 fatal injuries were due to falls from a height accounting for 30% of all worker deaths over the year. Struck by moving vehicle accounted for 20 fatal injuries to workers in 2022/23, representing 15% of the total number of deaths over the year. 21% of the fatal injuries in 2022/23 were caused by struck by moving, including flying/falling, object.
Further reading
