It’s not workplace safety criminals that have anything to fear, it’s you. The Health and Safety Executive is missing in action, just as record numbers are being harmed by their jobs.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics confirm shockingly high rates of work-related ill-health accompanied by a collapse of enforcement action. New figures for 2020/21, from which HSE excluded work-related Covid infections, show 1.7 million workers suffering from a work-related illness in 2021, up from 1.6m the previous year.
*provisional
Work-related stress, anxiety or depression cases for the second consecutive year topped 820,000. The last two years, 2019-2021, mark a high after a year-on-year increase since 2014/15, when HSE’s estimate was around 500,000 workers affected – indicating a shocking increase of around 60 per cent, or over 300,000 workers, in just six years (Hazards 156).
The latest statistics expose a catastrophic fall in HSE enforcement activity, now at a record low, with just 185 convictions. In 2009/10, when HSE recorded 1.3m cases of work-related ill-health, the regulator recorded 735 convictions – which was a record low at the time.
Total fines for criminal safety offences have also crashed, down by over 60 per cent from £71.57m in 2017/18 to a provisional total of £26.88m in 2020/21.
It means since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, the number of workers harmed by their jobs each year has increased by 30 per cent, but convictions have fallen by 75 per cent.
It’s not just prosecutions and convictions. HSE enforcement notices have dropped year-on-year for the last five years, to a record low. HSE issued 2,889 stop work prohibition notices in 2016/17 compared to 1,107 in 2020/21, a drop of over 60 per cent. Improvement notices over the same period fell from 5,829 to 1.821, down almost 70 per cent.
*provisional
In 2009/10, the last year before the Tories came to power HSE issued a total of 9,734 notices (Hazards 112), compared to the 2,928 in 2020/21 – a fall of 70 per cent.
Separate HSE statistics, which HSE excluded from the annual toll, show over 32,000 cases of work-related Covid were reported in 2020/21, with 383 deaths.
Far more are being hurt, far fewer are being held to account. It’s no accident. HSE has been starved of resources; no other government has ever cared less.
Selected sources
NO-ONE IS COMING
TO SAVE YOU
Since the Conservatives came to power, the number of workers harmed by their jobs each year has increased by 30 per cent, but convictions for criminal safety offences have fallen by 75 per cent. Preventive Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspections are down by over two-thirds. Fines are in freefall. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill says this is no accident, it a policy of criminal neglect..
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| • | Introduction |
| • | Selected sources |
| Hazards webpages | |
| • | Hazards news |
| • | Deadly business |
| • | 28april.org |
