It is a big year for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the workplace health and safety regulator.

HSE’s chief executive Sarah Albon said: “This year marks 50 years since the legislation which established HSE was passed. Much has been achieved in that time, including a dramatic reduction of around 85 per cent in the numbers of employee fatal injuries in the workplace [see: Watchdog’s state].

“Today, Great Britain is one of the safest places in the world to work but these statistics serve as a reminder that there is still room for further improvement, and we remain committed to ensuring people remain safe and healthy wherever work is taking place.”

While trumpeting five decades of lifesaving regulatory successes on the Health and Safety Executive’s 50th birthday, the regulator’s leadership glossed over one inconvenient truth.

The improvements ended years ago. Stone dead.

Latest Health and Safety Executive (HSE) annual statistics on work-related ill-health and workplace injuries, published on 20 November 2024, reveal that the number of workers reported to be suffering from work-related ill-health during 2023/24 is 1.7 million –similar to 2022/23, which hit an all-time record 1.8 million workers [more].

GONG WRONG  Sarah Albon, the chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has been recognised in the New Year’s honours list. She has been appointed a Companion of the Order of Bath for her services to the public sector. The HSE chief, who was appointed in 2019, has overseen an increase in work-related ill-health to record levels, no fall in work-related fatalities and serious injuries and a catastrophic drop in HSE inspections and prosecutions (see: Watchdog’s state).

Approximately half of these reported ill-health related to stress, depression or anxiety, with an estimated 776,000 cases in 2023/24.

The HSE figures also show that 138 workers were killed in work-related accidents in 2023/24, while 604,000 workers sustained a self-reported non-fatal injury in the workplace during the same period.

But HSE’s figures tell only part of the story.

A Hazards analysis of HSE’s injury, inspection and enforcement record since 2014/15 (see table, below), show the latest fatality figure of 138 deaths for 2023/24 sneaks above the average for the last ten years of 136.9 deaths.

The only significant dips occurred during the Covid epidemic, when workplaces were shuttered or staff were working from home.

Similarly, the 2023/24 figure of 17,761 fatal and major injuries combined is higher than the average of just below 17,400 for the decade, and about right on the average if you correct for the dips that occurred during the Covid pandemic.

But while injury rates have remained stubbornly high, the number of HSE prosecutions resulting in a guilty verdict have crashed.

A Hazards freedom of information request to HSE found in both 2014/15 and 2015/16 there were over 600 successful prosecutions each year. In 2022/23 and 2023/24 this had fallen to fewer than 300 each year.

HSE inspections too have dropped consistently, from approximately 20,200 in 2014/15 to 14,600 in 2023/24, approaching a 30 per cent fall in workplace scrutiny.

It means the average workplace enforced by HSE can expect a visit about once every 50 years. If your workplace had a visit from an inspector in 2024, you may have to wait until HSE’s centenary to see one again.

All of this comes at a cost.

A March 2025 analysis by the TUC shows that number of days lost due to work-related ill-health has rocketed by a third since 2010 to almost 34 million days – compared to 22 million in 2010.

This is costing the UK economy over £415 million a week, the TUC said.
Its analysis of official statistics shows that the number of days lost due to health conditions – including stress, depression and anxiety – has shot up by a third since 2010. TUC said in 2022/23, the latest year for which figures are available, work-related ill-health is estimated to have reduced economic output by £21.6bn.

The findings show the “urgent importance” of improving the quality of work, it said. The TUC added the rise in days lost to work-related ill-health has coincided with a huge boom in insecure work.

A separate 10 March 2025 report from the Commission for Healthier Working Lives suggests that poor quality work, including job insecurity, can harm employee health. The Commission’s final report, ‘Action for healthier working lives’, states: “Most health conditions develop outside work, but for a significant number of people, work itself is the cause.

“Persistent insecurity, workplace discrimination and extreme demands take a serious toll on health. In some cases, poor quality work is even worse for health than being unemployed.”

It says that “while good quality work provides income, purpose and stability – all of which support good health, poor quality work – stressful conditions, inflexible working arrangements and poor job design – can make health worse, especially in demanding sectors like health and social care and transport and logistics.”

The report notes: “Declining health among working age people is a growing risk to both livelihoods and economic prosperity. Too many people leave work due to ill-health with little support to stay employed.

“8.2 million working-age people have work-limiting health conditions, and each year over 300,000 people leave their jobs and end up out of the workforce entirely with health conditions – predominantly musculoskeletal or mental health conditions.”
It adds “poor workforce health is estimated to cost UK employers up to £150bn a year through lost productivity, sickness absence and recruitment costs.”

The Commission notes the cost of inaction is high and only likely to grow.

RIGHTS DIRECTION Low paid, low rights jobs are a blight on the economy, the TUC has said. It says better jobs and working conditions will help save the country billions each year through reducing the human and economic cost of 1.7 million or more workers harmed by their jobs each year.

The TUC argues driving up employment standards will help improve staff well-being, health and productivity. It will also ensure that more people with disabilities or health conditions can stay in work. 

It said this view was backed up by polling in autumn 2024 which revealed that threequarters (75 per cent) of managers think that strengthened employment rights will improve employee health, compared to just 4 per cent who disagree.

Seven in 10 (74 per cent) believe that strengthening employment rights will improve workforce retention, compared to just 6 per cent who do not.  

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Improving the quality of work in Britain is good for workers and our economy. Work-related ill-health is costing us hundreds of millions each week – that's billions of pounds down the drain every year.

”That’s why the government's Employment Rights Bill is so important. Cracking down on exploitative practices like zero hours contracts and giving people more security will boost workers’ health, well-being and productivity. It will also help more people stay in work. 

“We need to turn the corner on Britain’s low rights, low pay economic model that has been tested to destruction over the last 14 years. Giving working people more control and predictability over their lives will help create a happier, healthier and more robust workforce.”

Not everyone is a fan of the Bill, particularly rightwing thinktanks and the more dyspeptic tendency in the business lobby.

Professor Len Shackleton, a research fellow at the Institute for Economic Affairs, which styles itself as ‘the original free market thinktank’, said on 11 March 2025: “The government's Employment Rights Bill may be well-intentioned, but it risks damaging businesses which are already under pressure and stifling economic growth, whilst hurting the very workers the bill intends to protect.”

So far, the Labour government is holding firm. Commenting on 4 March 2025, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said: “For too long millions of workers have been forced to face insecure, low paid and irregular work, while our economy is blighted by low growth and low productivity.   

“We are turning the tide – with the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation, boosting living standards and bringing with it an upgrade to our growth prospects and the reforms our economy so desperately needs.” 

An open letter from a group of ten leading economists and labour lawyers, including Ozlem Onaran, professor of economics at the University of Greenwich and Jonathan Michie, professor of innovation and knowledge exchange at the University of Cambridge, challenges claims by business leaders that the new employment rights will stifle UK economic growth.

The letter, published on the website of the union-supported Institute for Employment Rights (IER), argues that evidence overwhelmingly shows stronger worker protections can enhance productivity, support demand and create a more stable economy.
The economists and labour lawyers challenge assertions made by business groups, including the CBI, that the Bill represents a “thicket of regulation” that will prevent them from “creating the high-quality, secure jobs which we all want to achieve.”

The letter adds that claims by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) that the Bill will “wreak havoc” on an already fragile economy fail to recognise the broader economic benefits of fair labour laws.

Instead, they argue that “labour laws do not, on the whole, have negative economic consequences, and may well have positive ones.”

RECURRING NIGHTMARE  It’s déjà vu all over again when it comes to health and safety. Keir Starmer is talking the same unevidenced growth talk as David Cameron, a move unions say will jeopardise safety (Hazards 124).

The group highlights that employment protection laws lead to better job security, which incentivises firms to invest in worker training and capital improvements, ultimately boosting productivity.

Professor Ozlem Onaran, one of the signatories of the letter, said: “Britain was a pioneer in labour legislation and history shows that stronger employment rights contribute to economic stability rather than hinder it. The notion that protecting workers harms growth is not supported by serious economic research.”

The group argues that “labour laws need not deter private investment and can complement improvements to public infrastructure… Over time, as their effects feed through to the wider economy and government finances, labour laws largely pay for themselves.”

This is a critical point. The prime minister Keir Starmer, while accepting new labour rights will be good for growth, has instructed the Health and Safety Executive and other regulators to be “more pro-growth and pro-investment”, criticising the “watchdog state”.

The approach calls for deregulation and tells regulators to ease off on business scrutiny.

It is an approach not supported in the IER letter.

Lord John Hendy KC, IER chair and a signatory of the letter, said: “Stronger employment protections are not an obstacle to economic growth but a driver of stability, productivity and fairness.

“This Bill is an important first step in addressing the failures of deregulation, but it does not go far enough.”  

Less naming, less shaming

While there has been no improvement in the number of fatal and major injuries over the last decade, accountability has fallen dramatically.

Inspections and enforcement matter, as they can identify risks before they turn to harm, can identify and assist well-intentioned but poorly performing employers and can ensure justice for those harmed by their employer’s criminal disregard for health and safety.

But there’s another positive outcome. Naming and shaming through prosecutions, penalties and the associated publicity has a sobering effect by encouraging erring employers back on a safe path.

Without inspections, hazards may go unresolved and negligent employers may, consciously or unconsciously, allow working environments to persist that can lead to fatalities, injuries and the lingering and often fatal harm caused by occupational diseases like silicosis.

The HSE’s research on offshore inspections published in February 2025 shows how inspection programmes can lead to ‘major safety improvements’, particularly where there is the added protection of union safety reps [more].

Other research confirms the protective effect. A sharp decline in fatalities in the US in the last year of the Biden administration, down 11 per cent on the previous year, was credited by the then head of the federal safety agency OSHA to stronger enforcement.

“These numbers are promising evidence that stronger enforcement and collaboration with labour and management, driven by the Biden-Harris administration’s worker-centred approach, is saving lives,” said outgoing OSHA head Douglas Parker. “Most striking is the improvement in areas we have focused on with employers and unions.”

The figures published by OSHA for fiscal year 2024 revealed the federal regulator investigated 826 worker deaths, compared to 928 in the previous year. A succession of US studies have established the salutary effect of naming and shaming employers guilty of egregious workplace safety crimes.

DEREGULATION PUSH When Donald Trump and Keir Starmer share their regular phone calls, there is one topic on which they are in total agreement – deregulation. However, the last year of the Biden administration saw a strong emphasis on workplace safety regulation and enforcement deliver an 11 per cent reduction in fatalities, or over 100 lives saved in workplace fatalities alone.

Matthew Johnson, author of a 2020 study published in the American Economic Review that examined the impact of exposing companies’ ‘socially undesirable actions’ on safety, concluded: “I find that publicising a facility's violations led other facilities to substantially improve their compliance and experience fewer occupational injuries.

“OSHA would need to conduct 210 additional inspections to achieve the same improvement in compliance as achieved with a single press release.”

The financial cost of poor safety practices goes well beyond fines.

‘No shame, no gain? The role of reputation in labour market enforcement’, a November 2021 report from the Resolution Foundation, warned bad publicity on safety can harm a company’s value.

“A recent example comes from the initial public offering (IPO) of gig economy company Deliveroo earlier this year which was described as the ‘worst IPO in London’s history’,” the report notes.

“This was in part because big investors said their ‘treatment of couriers doesn’t align with responsible investing practices’, following health and safety concerns during the Covid-19 pandemic and reports of workers paid well below minimum wage.” The March 2021 share flop came 10 months after a cross-party group of MPs demanded Deliveroo protect the incomes and safety of its riders.

But both scrutiny and accountability have been eroded in the UK. HSE prosecutions are down by over 50 per cent in a decade, HSE inspections by over a quarter. This is happening at a time when the human cost in fatal and serious injuries and work-related ill-health has remained stubbornly and unacceptably high.

Labour’s attack on regulation and regulators, in the name of growth, is not just economically and morally questionable.

It is, potentially, fatal.

Work hazards caused 34m lost days last year

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) annual statistics on work-related ill health and workplace injuries released on 20 November 2024 reveal that the number of workers reported to be suffering from work-related ill health during 2023/24 is 1.7 million – which is similar to 2022/23, 1.8 million workers.

HSE says the rate of self-reported work-related ill health remains broadly similar to the previous year, although the current rate is still higher than the 2018/19 pre-pandemic level.

Approximately half of those reporting ill-health relate to stress, depression or anxiety, with an estimated 776,000 cases in 2023/24. The current rate of self-reported work-related stress, depression or anxiety is higher than the pre-pandemic level but has decreased from 910,000 in 2022/23.

An estimated 33.7 million working days were lost in 2023/24 due to self-reported work-related ill health or injury.

HSE’s chief executive Sarah Albon said: “This year marks 50 years since the legislation which established HSE was passed. Much has been achieved in that time, including a dramatic reduction of around 85 per cent in the numbers of employee fatal injuries in the workplace.

“Today, Great Britain is one of the safest places in the world to work but these statistics serve as a reminder that there is still room for further improvement, and we remain committed to ensuring people remain safe and healthy wherever work is taking place.”

HSE’s statistics also reveal the impact work-related ill health and workplace injuries are having on Britain’s economic performance.

In 2022/23, the estimated annual costs of workplace injury and new cases of work-related ill health reached £21.6 billion, which is £1.6 billion less compared with 2021/22.

The figures also show that 138 workers were killed in work-related accidents in 2023/24, while 604,000 workers sustained a self-reported non-fatal injury in the workplace during the same period.

Construction fatalities increased from 42 deaths in 2022/23 to 51 in 2023/24.

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Offshore unions have ‘strong positive’ safety effect; inspections lead to ‘major’ improvements

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) report on safety leadership in the offshore sector has found union reps have a ‘strong positive’ effect. HSE added its inspection programme has led to “major safety improvements in the offshore industry.”

The regulator inspected 13 production operators between January 2022 and May 2024 as part of its Process Safety Leadership Principles (PSLP) programme.
In addition to inspections, HSE said inspectors were also engaging with senior leaders at offshore firms and industry groups as they determined how PSLP was being embedded across the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS).

The programme was launched by HSE after it noted a stagnating safety record in the offshore industry.

Samantha Peace, director of HSE’s energy division, said: “One of the main successes from our PSLP programme is that offshore companies are now engaging with one another on an unprecedented level. “We found that firms were looking at themselves, identifying areas of improvement, engaging with other companies and above all, finding solutions.”

HSE said this has led to developments in process safety leadership, Major Accident Hazard (MAH) management and performance, workforce engagement and utilisation of the elected safety representatives.

The key findings include: “Workforce engagement and utilisation of the Elected Safety Representative (ESR) function is a strong positive. Clear two-way communication and messaging to the frontline workforce on expected standards of behaviour.”

On workforce engagement, the report notes: “Organisations are attempting to find the balance of sharing sufficient information but also ensuring that it can be understood by the majority of the workforce.

“One opportunity for improvement in this area is the utilisation of the ESR function to meet this purpose.

“Organisations should ensure that they are sharing sufficient detail on MAH performance with the ESR such that they can communicate any issues to their constituents but also present any challenges or recommendations for improvement to the offshore and onshore leadership.”

The programme also identified that a reduction in headcount has led to a decrease in skills, knowledge and competency in the industry.

Process safety leadership findings of Energy Division inspection programme: Findings from HSE inspections of UK Continental Shelf production operators, HSE, February 2025.

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Deregulation push in Europe could cost lives 



Trade unionists and green campaigners staged a protest in Brussels on 25 February 2025 to tell the European Commission to ‘slam the brakes’ on its Omnibus package which they say is driving Europe towards deregulation and would weaken workers’ rights, safety and environmental protections. 

A banner reading ‘EU Omnibus: destination deregulation’ was unfurled outside the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters and bus tickets reading “workers denied boarding” were distributed to people coming and going from the building
.
Isabelle Schömann, deputy general secretary of the Europe-wide union confederation ETUC, said: “Nobody should forget that the directives at risk were introduced under President von der Leyen to prevent a repeat of the Rana Plaza disaster in which over 1,100 people lost their lives because companies did not do their due diligence on abuses in their supply chains.”

She added: “The Commission should not put at risk the lives of working people around the world. A proper industrial policy backed up with proper investment is what will make the difference to the competitiveness of European companies – not deregulation.”



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Too young to die

A company has been fined £1.6m plus £23,193.60 costs after a 24-year-old worker was crushed to death. Jack Phillips (right) lost his life on 8 August 2019 while working for Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services UK Ltd had been assisting while temporary Mast Climber Work Platform sections were being lifted by a lorry mounted crane. The load fell on top of Jack when the lifting sling which was attached to the crane snapped. An investigation by the HSE and Sussex Police found Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services UK Ltd, trading as Lyndon SGB, failed to properly plan the lifting operation of the work platform. The company, a provider of temporary access equipment, had failed to identify a requirement for safe exclusion zones and failed to have a suitable system in place to ensure all accessories had been thoroughly examined or disposed when expired. This resulted in out-of-date slings being used.

An engineering company has been fined £800,000 after a 23-year-old labourer died during the construction of a wind farm on the Shetland Islands. Agency worker Liam MacDonald (left) was removing dried concrete from a skip at the Viking site on Upper Kergord. He had started working on the site just over a month earlier on 4 May 2022, and had been using a hammer to chip away concrete when the skip’s bale arm fell on top of him. He was found motionless with the bale arm pinned against his chest. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), found the principal contractor BAM Nuttall failed to secure the bale arm.

A Blackburn-based engineering company has been fined £80,000 plus £6,713 costs after a worker was killed after being crushed under a machine. Connor Borthwick (right) was working for Partwell Special Steels Limited at its site in Bruce Street when the incident happened on 25 November 2021. The 22-year-old and another employee were moving a large cutting press machine across a workshop floor when it became unbalanced, resulting in Connor being fatally crushed. HSE found that Partwell Special Steels Limited had not undertaken an assessment of the risks involved with moving the machine and that the task had not been suitably planned and no safe system of work had been provided to the employees.

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FLATLINING

Around 18,000 workers each year are killed or seriously injured at work; that number is not falling. But both prosecutions for safety crimes and inspections are in freefall. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill questions why the safety regulator is letting employers get away with murder.