This year, the HSE has not only issued guidance to help companies manage workplace safety, but has also given managers and employees practical tools to protect their workforces. With support from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Incident Contact Centre (ICC), which handles RIDDOR reports, the HSE has also published detailed statistics to give business leaders clearer insight into workplace risks.
What are the statistics?
The figures from April 2024 to March 2025 show the following:
- 124 workers died due to work-related incidents
- 1,900,000 working people suffered from a work-related illness, including:
- 964,000 with work-related stress, depression or anxiety
- 511,000 with a work-related musculoskeletal disorder
- 40.1 million working days were lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury.
- The cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions is estimated to be £22.9 billion, much of that to the employer.
For further details, the HSE have statistics webpages with more information on this year’s figures, including different types of work-related ill health and different industry sectors, and an annual infographic-style summary statistics booklet.
Prosecutions
To ensure employers uphold their legal duty to protect employee health and safety, the HSE prosecutes businesses, and sometimes managers and supervisors, when there are infringements to H&S policy, or law breaking.
When an illness, injury, or death occurs and evidence shows that an employer’s or other responsible person’s actions, or failures to act, were at fault or unlawful, the HSE brings charges. The legal system evaluates the evidence and responds accordingly.
As of November 2025, there has been:
- 133 successful prosecutions, compared with:
- 216 criminal prosecutions in 2022/23
- 248 in 2023/24
- £35,772,025.00 issued in fines.
- With £980,803.66 in court costs applied
- 28 years and 5 months imprisonment handed down in total, whether suspended or not.
- A total of 12 ½ years in actual confinement
- Several company directors disallowed permissions to be on boards for a total of 6 years.
A case study
One of these prosecutions was in relation to a fatality that occurred after a company failed to undertake suitable or sufficient risk assessment regarding storage of its laden pallets.
Instead of using a racking system to store laden pallets safely, they were stored by stacking them on top of each other. Consequently, a pallet weighing 592kg that was stacked on top of another fell over, trapping an employee between the pallet and a ledge on a wall behind him. Due to its weight, the pallet had to be manually ‘unloaded’ before being lifted off the employee, who died at the scene from his injuries.
The subsequent investigation determined there were no risk assessments which considered the load, height, weight or stability of laden pallets stacked in this manner and concluded that these pallets should not ever have been stacked vertically. There was a ‘pallet handling policy’ produced by the employer but the investigation determined that not all employees had been trained on it, and there was no evidence that the fatality had been trained.
It was determined the main failings of the company were:
- Failing to undertake a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the storage of laden pallets in the bulk storage area.
- Failing to put in place measures to prevent double stacking and falling pallets.
- Failing to provide adequate training for storing goods pallets in the area.
- Failing to ensure adequate monitoring and supervision of the condition and storage of goods pallets.
The company was fined £600,000 and ordered to pay £15,000 in costs.
If this newsletter has raised any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us as we are happy to help.