The HSE has published its annual report for 2020/21, looking at workplace illness, injury and fatal accidents.
Most self diagnosed sickness and stress related absences were in the public sector. The top employment sectors for self-reported illness were healthcare and social work, in other words the NHS and its myriad sub-sectors, followed closely by public sector admin, Council departments and then the education sector.
It is important for insurers to bear in mind that the HSE UK illness estimates by the HSE are based on self-reporting, or reporting via relatives in the household, as part of the ONS Labour Force Survey and then extrapolated nationwide.
Agriculture, fishing and construction remain areas where a workplace injury is far more likely than a desk-based job. Here’s the snapshot from the HSE report;
There are some surprising stats in the annual report. For example France suffers six times as many fatal workplace accidents as Germany or the UK. You wonder why a modern democracy like France has a fatality rate that is far in excess of most EU nations and the UK.
Also, an estimated 645,000 people in the UK believe that Covid19 has made an existing medical condition or illness worse in 2021. Although nobody in the Labour Force Survey appears to be asking whether those worsening medical conditions are down to not seeing GPs, consultants, delayed appointments etc.
But here is the most shocking stat of the year: The number of fatalities in UK workplaces from 2020/21 was 142, compared to just 111 deaths in 2019/20. That’s a percentage increase of around 32% year-on-year Given that many people were in lockdown and not actually at work in the 2020/21 year, it begs the question; is workplace safety really being enforced properly during the Covid19 era when so many people in the public sector are working from home? This is something all UK Business Insurance brokers and insurers should be concerned about.
Read the full report here.
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