Health and Safety Executive Health and Safety Statistics and the SME perspective November 2013

Health and Safety Executive Whole economy overview

Fatal injuries in the workplace Fatalities to workers reduced slightly in 2012/13 (148 compared with 171 in 2011/12) Evidence of a levelling off in downward trend over past 5 years

Self-reported injuries (LFS)

Underlying trend in RIDDOR data Change to Over-7-Day reporting from Over-3-Day reduced reports by approximately 30% (no suggestion that the change affected major injury reporting) Modelling suggests the underlying trend is still downwards for the whole economy series

New cases of work-related ill health 2011/12

Days lost from work-related injury or illness 5.2 million working days were lost in 2012/13 due to injury – on average 8.1 days per injury

Cost to society of H&S failings 2006/ /12 (2011 prices) Workplace injuries and ill health (excluding cancer) cost society an estimated £13.8bn in 2010/11 (2011 prices) No ill health data collected

SME statistics – some challenges RIDDOR suffers from substantial underreporting, and this is a particular issue for injuries in SMEs and the self-employed. Workplace size field is also poorly recorded Reliance on survey data to give a fair comparison  BUT small sample sizes often prevent detailed exploration

Work-related ill health 2011/12

Rates of work-related MSD 2011/12 No difference in levels of musculoskeletal disorders by organisation size

Rates of work-related stress 2011/12 Total cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety are higher in large organisations than in SMEs

Rate of injury (over 3 day absence) 3 year average – 2010/ /13 Medium sized organisations have higher injury rates than either small or large – but all have shown a decrease in injury levels over time

Injury and ill health rates for SMEs by industry sector 5 year average rates

How is H&S managed in practice at the workplace Effective health and safety management practices in the workplace fundamental to securing improvement in health and safety outcomes pan-European survey showed workplaces generally take coherent, systems-based approach to occupational health and safety management. –However, level of preventive action varies according to a number of factors, most importantly workplace size.

How is H&S managed in practice at the workplace Plans underway for repeating 2009 European survey next year; HSE is hoping to collaborate with EU- OSHA to increase the value of the UK results Will provide a wealth of data on how management practices vary by industry sector and workplace size; Will update the group with developments at next meeting

Summary Overall improvements in health and safety outcomes over past decade Lower ill health rates in SMEs –Difference is stress – higher levels in large organisations Some inconsistency in injury rates but all organisation sizes have improved over time SMEs less likely to have coherent systems- based approach to health and safety management

HSE User Engagement Conference 21 st January 2014 at Redgrave Court in Liverpool Opportunity for our data users to feed back their own experiences of using HSE’s statistics Topics to be covered include: Hints and tips for benchmarking data Top frustrations with the statistics – what are they, why do they exist and what are we doing about it? Ongoing research including a look at the Harm Index, analysis of occupation groups and research into shift-work Attendance is free – contact to express an interest and find out more

Health and Safety Executive Find out more