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Statistics related to health and safety at work including injuries, work-related ill health and enforcement action taken for breaches of health and safety legislation.

Publications

Accident & Emergency Care Statistics - Northern Ireland
Department: Health, Social Service and Public Safety (Northern Ireland)
This publication presents information on annual activity at emergency care departments in Northern Ireland. It details information on new attendances, planned & unplanned re-attendances, patient transport to A&E, waiting times in emergency care departments and accidents in the home resulting in the patient being admitted to hospital.
Blood Lead Exposure
Department: Health and Safety Executive
Statistics on blood-lead levels of workers in Great Britain exposed to lead.
Continuous Household Survey Bulletin
Department: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
The Bulletin provides summary information as well as some trend data from previous years. It includes information on - smoking, household composition, debt, internet access, health, sport and leisure, environmental issues, mobile phones and job applications.
Domiciliary Care Services for Adults, Northern Ireland
Department: Health, Social Service and Public Safety (Northern Ireland)
This statistical bulletin presents information on the number of clients receiving domiciliary care services from the statutory and independent sectors during a survey week. It provides information on the number of domiciliary care contact hours provided, the number of client visits and the number of clients receiving domiciliary care during this survey week.
Fatal injuries in the workplace
Department: Health and Safety Executive
A brief summary of validated workplace fatal injury statistics, as reported to all health and safety enforcing authorities, covering the latest full year.
Health and Safety Statistics
Department: Health and Safety Executive
Health and Safety Statistics annual release presents updated statistics on work-related injury, ill health and enforcement in Great Britain.
Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios - Quarterly Statistics
Department: ISD Scotland (part of NHS National Services Scotland)
Quarterly release of the Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios (HSMR's) of all hospitals participating in the Scottish Patient Safety Programme
ICU Associated Infections in Scotland
Department: ISD Scotland (part of NHS National Services Scotland)
National report on incidence of healthcare associated infections within ICUs in Scotland. As from 26 October 2010 this publication is no longer released by ISD but by Health Protection Scotland instead.
Mesothelioma Deaths
Department: Health and Safety Executive
A fact sheet containing updated analyses of mesothelioma deaths by occupation and geographical area.
Mesothelioma Statistics
Department: Health and Safety Executive
Annual update of mesothelioma and asbestosis deaths .
Northern Ireland Fireworks Injuries
Department: Health, Social Service and Public Safety (Northern Ireland)
This statistical release gives details of the number of persons injured by fireworks in Northern Ireland during the Halloween period. The survey coveres a four/five-week period and covers those injuries treated at A&E Departments and Minor Injuries Units.
Psychosocial Working Conditions in Britain
Department: Health and Safety Executive
Presents analysis from an annual series of surveys on psychosocial working conditions which began in 2004. These surveys were set up to monitor changes in the psychosocial working conditions of Demand, Control, Managerial Support, Peer Support, Role, Relationships and Change in British workplaces.
Self-reported work-related illness and workplace injuries
Department: Health and Safety Executive
Detailed results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) on self-reported, work-related illness (SWI) and workplace injuries.
Violence at Work
Department: Health and Safety Executive
latest statistics on work related violence and its component parts, threats and physical assault

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Overview

The majority of the National Statistics published by the Health and Safety Executive relate to Health and Safety outcomes i.e. injuries at work and cases of work-related ill health.

We have two primary sources of data for both injuries and ill health. For injuries, we commission annual questions in the Labour Force Survey asking about accidents at work in the previous 12 months. We also have an administrative data source, known as RIDDOR, which holds reports of injuries in the workplace which employers are required to report under legislation. We know that reporting levels for non-fatal injuries are around 57% but vary substantially by industry and size of firm.

For work-related ill health we also use the Labour Force Survey and collect information annually about self-reported, work-related ill health conditions. The most commonly reported conditions are stress and musculo-skeletal disorders. To complement the self-reported data, we also have a network of GPs and specialist physicians who report cases of ill health they see in their daily work which they assess to have an occupational link (known as the THOR schemes). These cases are reported to the Centre for Environmental and Occupational Health at Manchester University who provided anonymised data to HSE. The THOR data also shows that stress and musculo-skeletal disorders are the most common work-related ill health conditions.

In addition we publish annual data on:

* deaths due to Mesothelioma and Asbestosis (conditions caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestosis)
* Levels of lead found in the blood of workers who are under medical surveillance for lead exposure
* estimates from the British Crime Survey of violence and aggression at work
* Numbers of enforcement notices served and prosecution cases taken for breaches of health and safety legislation

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Technical Data

Measuring work-related ill health is complex for a number of reasons:

i) It is a relatively rare event. Hence, survey estimates tend to have large confidence intervals around them and it is difficult to drill down reliably into industries and occupations for example. 

ii) The attribution of a health condition to work is not always straightforward and will not necessarily be consistently applied by different individuals or medical professionals e.g. stress, muscular problems, skin disease etc

iii) Many work-related ill health conditions have long latency periods i.e. there is a long gap between first exposure and the onset of disease. This is particularly true for Cronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and work-related cancers. We currently estimate that there are at least 12,000 deaths each year as a result of work-related exposures in the past.

Technical information about our various data sources can be found on our website. 

 

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Glossary

  • Incidence of work-related ill health

    The incidence of work-related ill health includes all new cases of self-reported work-related ill health where the condition first occurred within the last 12 months

  • Prevalence of work-related ill health

    The prevalence of work-related ill health includes all individuals who self-report a work-related ill health condition in the past 12 months including long standing cases, individuals who were made ill by a job they have done in the past and individuals who are no longer in the labour force.

  • RIDDOR

    Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurence Regulations 1995 - This legislation requires employers to report certain types of injuries that occur in the workplace. All injuries which result in the injured person being unable to carry out their normal duties for more than 3 working days should be reported. In addition, various specified "major" injuries are also required to be reported.

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Contact Details

For statistical enquiries about this topic, please contact:

Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Email: statistics.ebulletin@hse.gsi.gov.uk

Telephone: +44 (0) 151 951 3479

Health and Safety Executive Redgrave Court Merton Road Liverpool L20 7HS

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