Health and Safety

Executive

Health and Safety Statistics

At a glance

2014/15
 Health and Safety Statistics 2014/15 - At a glance www.hse.gov.uk

OVERVIEW WORK-RELATED ILL HEALTH WORKPLACE INJURY COSTS RESOURCES

What data do we have about workplace health and safety

in Great Britain?
Ill health/disease Safety Enforcement Other topics
Estimates of the number Number of people injured Number of companies Cost to Britain of health
of people with an illness and rates of injury at work prosecuted for breaches and safety failings
which is caused or made for different groups of of health and safety
worse by their work workers legislation Working days lost due to
work-related ill health and
Rates of work-related ill Number of dangerous Number of enforcement injury
health for different groups occurrence reports from notices served by health
of workers (eg by industry employers and safety inspectors European comparisons
and occupation) of health and safety
indicators
Estimated deaths due to
work exposures

Find out more about work-related ill health Find out more about injuries Go to the Go to the
Enforcement statistics Statistics website topic list
Go to the Statistics website Go to the Statistics website

1 Overview
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Health and safety compared

Self-reported health and safety Working days lost due to health and Work-related deaths by cause
incidents (1.1 million cases) safety incidents (27.3 million days) (around 13,000 deaths)
Note: Includes long standing ill health cases Note: includes diseases where sufficient data to
reliably count or estimate current mortality

Musculoskeletal Stress Other illness Injury Other illness Injury Cancer

Ill health accounts for 46% of the health and safety incidents, 85% of the related sickness Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
absence and around 99% of the work-related deaths each year

2 Key facts
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Types of work-related ill health

Common health conditions Long-latency conditions
which can be caused or made worse by work which can be caused by previous work activity and
where symptoms can appear many years after exposure
Work-
related
Stress Work-related Asbestos
Musculoskeletal -related disease
Cancers
disorders
Work-related Work-related
Skin Work- Other Hearing
disease related
Respiratory loss
Asthma disease, eg COPD
D
Vibration
-related
re
related disease

3 Work-related ill health TYPES

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What do we know about ... Find out more about Stress statistics
Find out more about Stress controls

Neew cases:
New cases:
234,000
234,000
Hig
High
gh rrates
attes Total cases:
Total casess: 9.99 million
millliion
in
in large
large 440,0000
440,000 working
w orkinng
workplaces
workplaces days lost
days lostt
(>250 employees)
(>250 emplo oyees)

High rates
in health and social care Work-related
Stress?
professionals and
education professional
occupations

High rates Higher

H igher
in human health and rrates
ates for
for
social care, education and High rates women
women than
than
public administration for workers me n
men
industries aged
35 to 54

4 Work-related STRESS
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What do we know about ... Find out more about MSD statistics
Find out more about MSD controls

New cases:
169,000
Manual handling Total cases: 9.5 million
is the main work activity 553,000 working
causing back days lost
disorders

High rates in Work-related

Musculoskeletal
building trades, nurses,
personal care and
skilled agriculture

disorders?
occupations

High rates in Approximately

agriculture, postal and 40% of disorders affect
courier activities, High rates the back, and 40% affect
construction and health for workers the upper limbs
care industries aged over
45

5 Work-related MUSCULOSKELETAL disorders

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What do we know about ... Find out more about cancer statistics
Find out more about cancer controls

8,000 deaths and

13,500 new cases
Over 5,500 cases estimated Three times
estimated each year per year more men than women die
from the construction from occupational
industry cancer

Most new cases are

Work-related Primary source of data for work-related

Cancer
lung cancer, cancer Cancer Burden Study
breast cancer or
skin cancer

Other causes of The most common

occupational cancer are shift forms of cancer leading to
work, solar radiation, mineral The leading death are lung cancer and
oils and silica cause of death is mesothelioma
occupational exposure
to asbestos

6 Work-related CANCER
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What do we know about ... Find out more about asbestos-related disease
statistics
Find out more about asbestos-related disease
Around 5,000 controls
deaths in total per
2,538 mesothelioma year currently, and Over
deaths in 2013: still increasing 200 deaths caused
2,123 in men, by asbestosis in
415 in women 2013

About as many lung

cancer deaths from asbestos
exposure as mesotheliomas
Asbestos-related
each year
disease?
Around 2,500 Diseases take many
mesothelioma deaths years to develop
per year projected for Current deaths are following exposure
the rest of this a result of past exposures, to asbestos
decade particularly in building-
related jobs

7 Work-related ASBESTOS disease

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What do we know about ... Find out more about respiratory disease
statistics
Find out more about respiratory disease
Includes asthma, controls
COPD, pneumoconiosis
and silicosis - diseases About 30,000 people
Diseases like COPD
that can be fatal who worked in the last year
can take many years to
report they currently have
develop after workplace
breathing/lung problems
exposures
caused or made worse

Work-related by work

Respiratory
About 4,000 COPD
deaths each year due to
past exposure to gases,
dusts and fumes at work

No significant
disease?
changes in annual new cases
of occupational asthma 132 occupational
over the last asthma cases seen
5 years by consultants
in 2013

8 Work-related RESPIRATORY disease

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What do we know about ... Find out more about skin disease statistics
Find out more about skin disease controls
Severity of skin disease
varies widely from minor
Florists, irritation to severe cases of Most common type
hairdressers, cooks and dermatitis, as well as skin is contact dermatitis
beauticians have high rates cancers caused by allergens
of dermatitis or irritants

Working with wet

Work-related
Skin disease?
hands and soaps/cleansing
agents are the most common
cause of dermatitis

A reduction in
new dermatitis cases
in the latest Over 1,050
2 years occupational dermatitis
cases seen by
dermatologists in 2014

9 Work-related SKIN disease

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What do we know about ... Find out more about NIHL statistics
Find out more about control of noise risks

NIHL is a long
latency disease that is
Disease occurs difficult to estimate About 130 new claims
predominantly accurately are awarded Industrial
in men Injuries Disablement
Benefit every year

Highest rates of
Work-related,
NIHL occur in energy and
extraction, construction and noise induced
Hearing loss (NIHL)?
manufacturing industries

Annually,
around 15,000
workers have Total number of
a NIHL cases in Great Britain was
estimated at around 500,000
in 1997/98

10 Work-related HEARING loss

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What do we know about ... Find out more about HAVS statistics
Find out more about control of vibration risks

Disease caused
by use of
Disease occurs hand-held power Around 16,000
predominantly tools claims over last 12 years
in men for Industrial Injuries

Hand-arm
Disablement Benefit

Extractive,

vibration disorders
construction and
manufacturing industries
are most at risk

New claims for both

vibration white finger and
(HAVS)?
carpal tunnel syndrome
1998 study suggested
have been declining over
prevalence of HAVS
the past decade
was almost 300,000
cases

11 Work-related HAND-ARM VIBRATION disorders

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Injury severity triangle

2014/15 Fatal injury
(not drawn to scale)
142
Specified injury reported by employers*

19,000
All injuries to workers reported by employers*

78,000
Self-reported injury leading to over-7-day absence

152,000
Self-reported injury leading to over-3-day absence

198,000
Self-reported injury at work

611,000
* RIDDOR reporting requirements have changed in recent years (move to over-7-day absences from April 2012 and specified injuries from October 2013)
12 Workplace injury
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What do we know about ... Find out more about workplace injury statistics
Find out more about controls: slips and trips
falls from height
Estimated 152,000 manual handling
self-reported
Most frequent causes over-7-day injuries 78,000 non-fatal
of injury are manual injuries to workers
handling, slips and trips reported by
and falls from height employers

High rates
Workplace
injury?
in manual
occupations

High rates in Higher rates

sewerage and waste for men
supply, agriculture, Higher rates than for
construction and for less women
transport experienced
workers

13 Workplace injury
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What do we know about ... Find out more about costs to Britain

Total 14.3 billion per

year resulting from current or
Costs have fallen recent working conditions Figures
with signs of (2013/14 estimate in exclude costs of
levelling off in 2013 prices) cancer - work is underway
recent years to estimate these*

Economic
Costs of injuries
Largest single cost
is non-financial value
given to the impact on
quality and loss
of life
and ill health?
Borne by individuals
(around 60% of total)
employers and Greater costs from
Government (around ill health (around two thirds)
20% each) than from injuries
* HSE will be publishing a separate estimate of costs of
(including fatalities) work-related cancer towards the end of 2015

14 Costs
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Where to go next
See the latest annual statistics report
See our suite of statistics tables
Go to the A to Z topic index
Go to the statistics homepage
Find out more about our data sources and National Statistics policies

HSE Chief Statistician: Alan Spence

Contact: alan.spence@hse.gsi.gov.uk

Last updated: October 2015

Next update: October 2016

15 Resources