The following details have been supplied by the TUC:
The TUC has warned that apparently conflicting evidence in the Health and Safety Executive’s new workplace injury statistics raise worrying questions about the safety watchdog’s claim that injuries are now at “an all time low.”
Figures for 2012/13 published by HSE on 30 October “show an 11 per cent drop in major injuries compared to 2011/12,” the safety enforcer reported. A news release announcing the new provisional figures was headed: “Workplace major injuries hit an all time low for 2012/13.”
According to HSE between April 2012 and March 2013 there were 19,707 reported major injuries such as amputations, fractures and burns to employees, a rate of 78.5 injuries per 100,000 employees) – compared with 22,094 in 2011/12 (a rate of 88.5 per 100,000 employees).
The fatality figure of 148 deaths was the second lowest figure on record.
TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson said lost time figures cast doubt on HSE’s best ever claims, noting “the statistics show that the number of days lost through workplace injury is up from 4.3 million to 5.2 million, which implies that the number of people injured is actually going up. So which is correct?” He said recent changes to the reporting regulations, RIDDOR, mean “it is almost impossible for anyone to use the HSE statistics to measure accurately what is happening to workplace injuries.” He added: “It would also be good to know how much under-reporting has changed as a result of the introduction of Fee for Intervention which, coupled with the ban on pro-active inspections in many workplaces, may mean that employers are far less likely to report an injury. But because the whole reporting system has changed that is almost impossible to know.” Robertson concluded: “What that means is that it is almost impossible to prove what we all suspect which is that the government’s policies over the past three years have driven up the number of injuries.”
