TUC Questions HSE’s Workplace Injuries Statistics

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 says in his latest blog on the Stronger Unions website, that 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?”

His blog continues:

"For injuries, RIDDOR has always been the most important comparison despite the level of under-reporting by employers. Now that RIDDOR has been changed (twice), it is almost impossible for anyone to use the HSE statistics to measure accurately what is happening to workplace injuries. Are they going down, as one set of the HSE statistics claim or going up as indicated in another part of the statistics?

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.

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 (occupational diseases take a bit longer before they show). The changes to inspections, coupled with some of the deregulation measures and removal of guidance are bound to have an effect on what employers do. However because the Government have also changed the way that injuries are reported we will never be able to show exactly what the effect is."

The health and safety campaign group Hazards have always challenged the HSE figures, and yet their stance has gone largely ignored until the the current attacks on healrth and safety legislation and practices by Cameron and his 'con-dem(ned)' coalition.

Source: TUC Risks / Stronger Unions blog

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