HSE releases provisional annual data for work-related fatal accidents.

Provisional annual data for work-related fatal accidents in Great Britain’s workplaces has been released by the HSE.

The long term trend has seen the rate of fatalities more than halve over the last 20 years. However, provisional figures indicate that 144 people were killed while at work in 2015/2016 – up from 142 in 2014/5.

The new figures show the rate of fatal injuries in key industrial sectors:

• Forty three workers died in construction, the same as the average for the previous five years.
• In agriculture there were twenty-seven deaths (compared to the five-year average of thirty-two).
• In manufacturing there were twenty-seven deaths (compared to five-year average twenty-two), but this figure includes three incidents that resulted in a total of eight deaths.
• There were six fatal injuries to workers in waste and recycling, compared to the five-year average of seven, but subject to considerable yearly fluctuation.

There were also 103 members of the public fatally injured in accidents connected to work in 2015/16, of which thirty-six (35 percent) related to incidents occurring on railways.