A common sense approach to your health and safety
As an employer, Health & Safety is vitally important if your company is to survive and prosper.
It only takes one problem to create knock-on effects that can seriously damage the future of your company and failure to take personal responsibility has even lead to imprisonment.
Listed here you will see some key statistics that you should be aware of…
During 2017/18 there were 144 fatal injuries to workers. This compares against:
During 2017/18 employers reported 71,000 other injuries to workers, often caused by slips, trips and falls & manual handling for example. Reported by Labour Force Survey in 2017/18 is there were 555,000 non-fatal injuries to employees.
In 2017/18, 1.4 million workers were suffering from work related ill-health. Stress has become the UK’s biggest work-related illness, overtaking musculoskeletal disorder cases.
£15 billion – the annual costs of of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2016/17).
595,000 work-related stress, depression or anxiety cases (new or longstanding) in 2017/18.
496,000 work-related musculoskeletal disorder cases (new or longstanding) in 2017/18.
Each year thousands of people die from work-related diseases mainly due to exposures many years ago. The number of cancer deaths has to be estimated rather than counted.
About 12,000 lung disease deaths estimated to be linked to past work exposures (linked to exposure to chemicals and dusts).
In 2017/18 an estimated 30.7 million working days were lost overall – the majority due to work-related ill health.
In 2017/18 there were 493 offences prosecuted by the HSE and local authorities. Fines totalled £72.6 million. The courts have continued to issue significantly higher fines year on year.
The HSE has highlighted that while the statistics show that Britain remains one of the safest places to work, there is still work to do to drive figures down.
A MORI poll for the British Safety Council has shown that a third of senior business people in the UK expect to see a ‘substantial fall’ of between 10 and 25% in their company’s share price if they were successfully prosecuted under proposed new legislation to make companies accountable in criminal law where it can be shown that the company is responsible for a person’s death. One in ten Board directors foresee a ‘major fall’ in company share prices, of more than a quarter, in such an event.
Insurers, brokers and lobby groups estimate that premiums for employers liability insurance will continue to rise this year, and many more firms will be refused cover altogether. Smaller businesses are hit particularly hard because they have not been able to demonstrate to insurers that they have been looking at Health and Safety.
So, now you’ve seen those reasons for considering health and safety issues, you’ll need to read on to see why MESH Consultants are the right company to consult in order to safeguard your employees and future prosperity of your business.
We work throughout the UK and Europe delivering health and safety expertise for companies in a diverse range of industries.