Fatal injuries in the workplace, statistics for the full year 2008/09

The latest national statistics on workplace fatal injuries, produced by the Health and Safety Executive, were released on 24 June 2009 according to arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

The release provides a provisional full-year total for 2008/09. Finalised figures for 2007/08 are also provided, as are trends over recent years.

The key points from the latest release are:

• The provisional figure for the number of workers fatally injured in 2008/09 is 180, and corresponds to a rate of 0.59 fatalities per 100 000 workers.
• The latest data represents a statistically significant decrease in the rate of fatal injury compared to previous years.
• It reinforces an underlying downward trend in the rate of fatal injuries that appeared to be levelling off in recent years.
• The figure of 180 for the latest year is 22% lower than the average for the past five years (231). In terms of the rate of fatal injuries, the latest figure of 0.59 compares to a five-year average of 0.77.

Useful background information:

• The latest comparisons of workplace fatal injuries in Great Britain and other EU countries can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/european/fatal.htm
• Non-fatal injury statistics can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overpic.htm.
• The next quarterly release of fatal injury statistics in GB, covering 1 April 2009 to 30 June 2009, will be at the end of September 2009 and will be located at http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/fatalquarterly.htm.

• Fatal injury statistics, 2008/09

Coverage: Great Britain

Geographical breakdown: Counts for Government Office Region for 2008/09, and averages for the previous five years are available. Statistics at local authority level, and rates for countries and Government Office Regions, will be available in the autumn.