Health and Safety in Numbers: the business health and safety statistics you should know

No business wants accidents occurring on their premises. In fact, health and safety is one of the most vital aspects of running a business! As an employer, it’s your basic duty to protect the health, safety, and well-being of your staff (as well as any visitors to your premises), and if an accident were to occur, you can be held accountable for it.

A safe workplace can be achieved by providing your employees with the right protective workwear and equipment, as well as taking the necessary precautions to prevent any accidents from occurring on your premises.

The reason that this is so vital isn’t just because it’s a legal obligation (though, of course, you do need to ensure that you’re fully compliant with the relevant health and safety standards). It’s proven that healthy employees equal happy employees, and that happy employees are also more productive.

Despite the importance of ensuring the safety of your employees, plenty of accidents still occur in the workplace each year. Not only that, but many of these could have been avoided if the appropriate health and safety precautions were taken.

With that in mind, here are some vital business health and safety statistics you may not be aware of…

There were 1.3 million work-related ill health cases (new or withstanding) in 2016/17.
70,116 non-fatal injuries and 137 fatal injuries to employees were reported last year.
In 2016/17, 25.7 million working days were lost to work-related ill health.
The annual cost of workplace injury in 2015/16 was £5.3 billion.
There are estimated to be 13,000 deaths each year due to past exposure to dangerous substances and materials, primarily chemicals and dust.
Of the 196 fatalities to occur in the construction industry in the 5 years leading up to 2016/17, 49% of these were from falling from a height, 10% were from being trapped by a falling or collapsing object, and 10% were from being struck by a moving vehicle.
Of the 137 deaths to occur at work in 2016/17, the main cause was by being struck by a moving vehicle, and this occurred in 31% of reported cases.
phs Besafe provides their workwear supply and laundering service to over 3,000 sites.
All high visibility workwear must hold the EN 20471 Standard, which is divided into 3 classes of visibility; our high visibility garments are fully compliant with this standard.
Many of our high visibility garments can withstand up to 50 wash cycles.
At phs Besafe, we have a 98% customer satisfaction rate for our products and services.