date: 17 May 2006

embargo: 00.01hrs Friday 19 May 2006

UK workplace safety inspections now at a new low

Safety inspections in the UK have plummeted to a new low, increasing the chances of workers being killed, made ill or injured by their jobs, according to new figures published today (Friday) by the TUC.

Previously unpublished figures obtained by the TUC-backed health and safety journal Hazards from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show that in the three years from 2002/03, visits to firms by safety inspectors dropped by over a quarter, down from over 74,000 a year to barely 55,000 in 2004/05.

The Hazards report says that UK employers are now less likely to be inspected, less likely to be prosecuted, less likely to be convicted of safety crimes, and less likely to receive a notice from an HSE inspector demanding safety improvements.

The Hazards figures also show that employers who commit safety offences against their staff are unlikely to ever find themselves up in court. In 2003/04, HSE took legal action against 960 firms but in 2004/05 this figure had fallen to just 712 prosecutions. With more than 30,000 fatal or major injuries being reported to the HSE that year, in 2004/05 employers had a one in 40 chance of being prosecuted following major accidents in their workplace.

And over same two-year period, the number of employer convictions for safety crimes fell from 887 to 673, and the number of prohibition or safety improvement notices issued to companies or organisations by the HSE fell from 11,295 to 8,445. The Hazards report says that the shift away from more dangerous blue collar to safer white collar jobs is masking a serious official failure to make significant inroads into the numbers of deaths and serious injuries at work.

Commenting on the figures, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'We know that inspections and prosecutions are the most effective way to stop employers from breaking the law. Whilst good employers have nothing to fear from inspections, rogue bosses have never before enjoyed such freedom to neglect safety rules. Negligent employers who risk their employees' health and safety can now do so safe in the knowledge that the HSE inspector is only likely to come calling once every 13 years.

'There is a real danger the UK's safety record will get worse unless the HSE devotes more resources to carrying out a greater number of more effective inspections. With visits and prosecutions at a new low, there is no incentive for employers to tighten up on safety and as a result more workers are likely to die, be made ill or injured at work.'

Hazards Editor Rory O'Neill said: 'Breaking safety laws is a crime with possible life or death consequences. Safety criminals should be policed, caught and prosecuted. Tens of thousands die each year as a result of entirely preventable diseases caused by their work, with possibly 24,000 deaths annually from work-related cancers alone. HSE resisted handing over the enforcement figures for several months, and you can see why. However HSE dresses it up, fewer inspections amount to less justice.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The full report, 'Sure, we'll be safe: HSE is walking away from inspections' appears in Hazards, number 94, Summer 2006 and is at http://www.hazards.org/commissionimpossible/hse

- Report author Rory O'Neill is editor of Hazards and a senior researcher with Stirling University's Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group.

- Hazards magazine is published quarterly. For subscription enquiries or orders contact Jawad Qasrawi on 0114 201 4265 sub@hazards.org

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Register for the TUC's press extranet : a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre-embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

Contacts:

Media enquiries: Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07778 158175; E: media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (700 words) issued 19 May 2006