HSE Fails To Probe Major Injuries

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is failing to investigate hundreds of the most serious workplace accidents every year because of a lack of resources, safety campaigners have found.

Figures obtained by the trade union-backed safety magazine Hazards and featured last week on BBC Radio 4's Face the Facts programme show that an increasing number of major injuries which should according to HSE rules require investigation are overlooked because of 'inadequate resources'.

HSE's definition of a major injury requiring an investigation includes most fractures, amputations, certain eye injuries, injuries resulting from burns or electric shock, loss of consciousness from lack of oxygen and any injury that requires hospital admission for more than 24 hours. But the figures obtained by Hazards show that HSE inspectors in 2004/05 logged lack of resources as the reason for failing to investigate incidents meeting the investigation criteria on 188 occasions. By 2005/06 this had risen to 255.

Last year the 'inadequate resources' reason was given for a failure to investigate some of the most serious workplace injuries on 307 occasions. Hundreds more incidents meeting HSE's official investigation 'selection criteria' were not investigated for other reasons, although Hazards discovered HSE has now stopped collecting statistics on these other categories. Steve Kay, Prospect HSE branch vice-chair, said: 'With adequate funding in the past, we succeeded in making substantial progress.

But now the Executive is being starved of the resources needed to improve safety at work. This is not a question of strategy, it is a simple matter of funding.' The growing failure to investigate comes despite HSE's guidance on the investigation of major injuries being restricted in 2004 in response to resource constraints; it now excludes injuries such as the loss of fingertips.

Rob Miguel, health and safety officer with the union Unite-Amicus, said: 'These are not statistics, they are real people with families. We are fed up to the back teeth with the lack of funding given to the HSE, who have of late been accused of failing to investigate hundreds of serious accidents.' Stirling University's Professor Andy Watterson said HSE risked suffering 'death by a thousand cuts.'

Source: TUC Risks, BBC News Online

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