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17th April 2024 Issue no. 701

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Work related deaths across Europe: latest figures released

Across Britain, the number of people killed at work has fallen to a new record low with 151 workers dying at work in 2009/10 - down 15% on the previous lowest total of 178 in the year before. The rate of fatal injury for 2009/10 represents a statistically significant decrease compared to the average rate for the previous five years. The figure of 151 worker deaths is 31% lower than the average for the past five years (220).

Eurostat has made a comparison of the fatal injury rates across EU countries. This reveals that the fatal injury rate for Great Britain is consistently one of the lowest in Europe. These data can be found on the Eurostat website [3]. From the 'Data Navigation Tree' select 'Population and social conditions'; then 'Health'; 'Health and safety at work'; 'Accidents at work'.)

Given that the statistics are based on a count of events that are rare, they are highly subject to chance variation from one year to the next. Therefore, when seeking to use the data to make inferences about changes in the inherent dangerousness of work conditions, it is necessary to look at trends over a number of years. The incorporation of the 2009/10 data into the time series reinforces an underlying downward trend for the UK.

The figures also show that In the services sector there were 42 fatalities - 42% below the average for the previous five years. Further, there were 70 members of the public fatally injured in accidents connected to work in 2009/10 (excluding railways-related incidents).

www.hse.gov.ukstatistics/fatals.htm

7th July 2010