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May 15 2019 Brunton's Blog
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Brunton’s Blog: HSE Safety Statistics
15/05/2019
HSE Safety Statistics
This week I think it is important to review the 2017/2018 construction industry workplace H&S statistics produced by the HSE. This information (including associated graphs) was presented at the most recent Joint Flat Roofing Technical Committee.
Fatal injury statistics
From the table below it is clear that construction worker fatalities are very slightly down on the average for the past five years (2013/2014-2017/2018). Members of the public suffering a fatality was tragically 50% higher in 2017-2018 compared with the average for the past five years.
Source Note
RIDDOR Accident kinds are shown for the top three causes of fatal injury
Again, it can be seen from the above table that falls from height account for almost half of construction worker fatalities over the last five years. These statistics relate to all construction activity and trades including of course, roofing. It is important to remain focussed on these key statistics and vigilant in our efforts at all times to avoid construction site accidents.
Non-Fatal Injuries
There have been 58000 non-fatal injuries on average reported each year in the 2015/16-2017/18 period. The long-term trend of the rate of workplace injury is downward overall. The comparison is shown below between the construction sector and other industries. While there is a degree of similarity with other industries in certain non-fatal injuries this cannot be said for non-fatal injuries that occur due to falls from height. The construction sector shows a very significant differential in this respect with a much higher proportional rate.
Source: Non-fatal injuries reported under RIDDOR 2015/16-2017/18. RIDDOR is used here as the LFS is not able to provide a breakdown to this level of detail.
Accident kinds are shown that account for 10% or more of injuries.
The 2018 HSE statistics for the construction sector also report that 82000 workers suffer from work-related ill health with a higher proportion of musculoskeletal disorders (62%) compared with other sectors/industries (44%). Stress, depression and anxiety account for 25% of this figure.
(Source – Labour Force Survey 2017/18. Many of these illnesses were long-standing ill health conditions)
Between 2015/2016 and 2017/18, 2.4 million working days (full day equivalent) were lost each year due to workplace injury and new cases of work-related ill health in construction.
(Source: LFS, annual average 2015/16-2017/18)
SPRA continues to keep a strong focus on safety in the workplace encouraging and supporting best practice concerning worker and general public H&S.
Dr Ronan Brunton B.Sc MBA GMICE, Technical Manager