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The HSE has released its annual figures for work-related fatal injuries for 2018/19, in addition to the number of people known to have died from the asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma, in 2017.

The provisional annual data for work-related fatal injuries revealed that 147 workers were fatally injured between April 2018 and March 2019.

The statistics suggest that there has been a long-term reduction in the number of fatalities since 1981. Although 2018/19 saw an increase of six workplace fatalities from 2017/18, the number has remained broadly level in recent years, comments the HSE.

Sectors

The new figures show how fatal injuries are spread across the different industrial sectors: agriculture, forestry and fishing, and the construction sectors continue to account for the largest share of fatal injuries to workers (32 and 30 deaths respectively in 2018/19).

The figures also indicate those sectors where the risk of fatal injury is greatest: Worst affected sectors are agriculture, forestry and fishing and also waste and recycling, with a rate of fatal injury some 18 times and 17 times as high as the average across all industries respectively (annual average rates for 2014/15-2018/19).

The three most common causes of fatal injuries continue to be:

• workers falling from height (40)
• being struck by a moving vehicle (30)
• being struck by a moving object (16).

These account for nearly 60% of fatal injuries in 2018/19.

The new figures continued to highlight the risks to older workers; 25% of fatal injuries in 2018/19 were to workers aged 60 or over, even though such workers made up only around 10% of the workforce.

In addition, there were also 92 members of the public fatally injured in incidents connected to work in 2018/2019, approximately a third of which took place on railways.

Asbestos-related cancer

Mesothelioma is contracted through past exposure to asbestos. It is one of the few work-related diseases where deaths can be counted directly.

The figures show that mesothelioma killed 2,523 in Great Britain in 2017 – a broadly similar number to the previous five years. The current figures are largely a consequence of occupational asbestos exposures that occurred before 1980, reports the HSE. Annual deaths are expected to remain broadly at current levels for the rest of the decade before beginning to reduce in number.

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