Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

Disease rates
Work related ill-health and occupational disease can 
lead to absence from work and, in some cases, to death. 
Table 1.2
Accidents for different groups of people for 
2004/05
 
Deaths 
Major 
Over 3 day
Total 
593 
46 018 
122 922
Employees 
172 (29%) 
30 451 
121 779
Self employee 
51 (9%) 
1 251 
1 143
Members of
370 (62%) 
14 316 
n/a
the public
Table 1.3
Accidents involving employees in the workplace
Injury 2002/03 
2003/04 
2004/05 
2005/06
Death 
183 
168 
172 
160
Major 
28 113 
30 666 
30 451 
28 605
Over 3 day 
128 184 
129 143 
121 779 
117 471
Table 1.4
Accidents (per 100
000 workers) to all workers 
in various employment sectors (2005/06)
Sector Deaths 
Majors
Agriculture 4.6 
211.7
Construction 3.5 
310.2
Transport 3.1 
398.2
Manufacturing 1.4 
180.3
Retail and wholesale 
1.3 
257.6
Hotel and catering 
0.1 
65.4
Health services 
0.1 
70.8
Injury 2002/03 
2003/04 
2004/05 
2005/06
Death 
623 
606 
593 
596
Major 
41 985 
45 516 
46 018 
45 230
Over 3 day 
129 135 
130 247 
122 922 
118 645
Table 1.1
Accidents involving all people at a place of work
Such occurrences may also lead to costs to the state 
(the Industrial Injuries Scheme) and to individual employ-
ers (sick pay and, possibly, compensation payments).
In 2004/05 a major survey was undertaken into self-
reported work related illness. In that year there were 
2.0 m people in the UK suffered from work related illness 
of whom 600 000 were new cases in that year. This 
led to 28 m working days lost compared to 6 m due to 
workplace injury. The top four illnesses were:
➤
musculoskeletal disorders
1010 k
➤
stress 
related 
509 
k
➤
lower respiratory disease 
137 k
➤
deafness, tinnitus and other ear problems 
74 k
11.6 m working days were lost due to musculoskeletal 
disorders causing each sufferer to have 21 days off work 
on average and 12.8 m working days were lost due to 
stress, depression and anxiety causing each sufferer to 
have 31 days off work on average. Recent research has 
shown that one in fi ve people who are on sickness leave 
from work for six weeks, will stay off work and leave 
paid employment.
III-health statistics are estimated either from self-
reported cases (Table 1.5) or from data supplied by 
hospital specialists and occupational physicians (Table 
1.6). The number of self-reported cases will always be 
much higher than those seeking advice from hospital-
based specialists.