Reminder for employers after 22 South East workers are killed
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is urging local businesses to focus on their legal responsibility to ensure lives are not put at risk and make the safety of workers their top priority for 2014.
The fresh appeal comes as new figures show that 22 people lost their lives while at work across the South East in 2012/13 and 2702 suffered a major injury. This compares to 17 deaths and 3005 major injuries the previous year.
The latest provisional figures show that the number of deaths across Great Britain has fallen in the last year, with 148 people killed at work, compared to 171 deaths during 2011/12. More than 20,600 workers also suffered a major injury in 2012/13, representing a 10.8 percent drop on the previous year. Five in every million workers were killed while at work between April 2012 and March 2013.
An HSE inspector said:
“The families of those South East workers who lost their lives last year had to face Christmas without them, and hundreds of other workers have had their lives changed forever by a major injury.
“Whilst the number of workplace deaths has decreased nationally, they have increased across the South East counties, and it serves as a stark reminder of why we need good health and safety in workplaces. I therefore urge employers to spend their time tackling the real dangers that workers face, and to stop worrying about trivial matters or pointless paperwork.
