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HSE 2019/20 health & safety at work statistics: The 5 key takeaways

The HSE have released the annual health and safety figures for the year 2019/2020, and here are the 5 key takeaways.

Please note that this report falls largely outside the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public life (the first nationwide lockdown began 23^rd March). Therefore findings should not be mainly attributed as to being the results of the pandemic.

1. Worker stress, depression or anxiety cases are up 37% from last year:

The cases for new and long-standing illnesses last year totalled 1.35 million, and this year’s figure is up a significant 21% to 1.63 million.

However, the most significant news: stress, depression or anxiety cases have gone up by a worrying 37% and are now the primary illness type (51%) of all new and long-standing illness cases (they made up 45% of cases last year). Stress, depression or anxiety are also responsible for an estimated 17.9 million working days lost this year – a massive increase of 40% from last year.

Overall, working days lost due to illness have gone up by 9 million (a 39% increase) from last year to 32.5 million – the highest number since 2001/02.

However, the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorder cases (480,000) fell by around 18,000 cases compared to 18/19, although new incidents were 14,000 more than last year.

2. Infectious disease cases had not increased by the end of March:

In the latest Labour Force Survey, work-related infectious disease (virus, bacteria) incidents remain unchanged from last year at around 24,000 cases, below the 2017 to 2019 3-year average of just over 30,000 cases. It must be noted again that the survey only relates to ill-health cases during the 12-month period before March this year.

However with the first COVID-19 case in the UK confirmed on 31 January, this is a notable finding.

3. Workplace fatalities reached a record low:

There were 111 worker (or employees/self-employed) fatalities in 19/20 – the lowest figure ever reported by RIDDOR since records began in 1974. The rate of fatal injuries also fell to a record low of 0.34 per 100,000 workers.

Whilst falls from height remain the biggest cause of death to workers (26%), the overall fall in fatalities continues an ongoing positive downward trend.

4. There are less serious injuries occurring at work, but more people are getting injured:

This year there were 4,937 less non-fatal injuries than last year for the lowest recorded figure from RIDDOR since 1985. Slips, trips or falls remain the biggest cause of RIDDOR reported injuries (29%).

However, this contrasts with Labour Force Survey statistics reporting 112,000 more non-fatal workplace injuries than last year, reaching the highest figure since 2010/11 with an estimated 693,000 cases this year.

Additionally, an estimated 6.3 million days were lost due to workplace injury – an increase of 1.6 million (34%) from last year.

This means that an estimated 38.8 million working days this year were lost due to work-related ill-health and non-fatal injuries; of which, at 10.6 million days more than 2018/19 is the largest single-year change on record.

5. HSE notices, prosecutions and fines fell significantly this year

2019/20 saw a 21% fall in notices issued by enforcing bodies, a 13% & 12% drop in prosecutions & convictions respectively by the HSE (and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland), and a 34% drop in fines.

The construction industry remained the sector with the most convictions (42% of all convictions), but manufacturing organisations were responsible for 45% of all fines received (£16 million) whilst only responsible for 27% of convictions.

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Bibliography

HSE (2020) ‘Health and safety statistics’. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/ (accessed: 24/11/2020)

HSE (2020) ‘Workplace fatal injuries in Great Britain, 2020’. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/pdf/fatalinjuries.pdf (accessed: 24/11/2020)

HSE (2020) ‘Kinds of accident statistics in Great Britain, 2020’. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causinj/kinds-of-accident.pdf (accessed: 24/11/2020)

HSE (2020) ‘Historical picture statistics in Great Britain, 2020 – trends in work-related ill health and workplace injury’. Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/history/historical-picture.pdf (accessed: 24/11/2020)

HSE (2020) ‘Enforcement statistics in Great Britain, 2020’. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/enforcement.pdf

HSE (2020) ‘LFS – Labour Force Survey – Self-reported work-related ill health and workplace injuries: Index of LFS tables’. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/lfs/index.htm#illness (accessed: 24/11/2020)

HSE (2020) Potential impact of COVID-19 on HSE’s main statistical data sources in 2019/20 https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/adhoc-analysis/covid19-impact19-20.pdf (accessed 24/11/2020)