Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain 2023

At the beginning of July the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for Britain released their figures for the number of work related fatalities with data from April 2022 up to March 2023.

During the assessment period for 2022/2023 135 workers were killed in work-related accidents in the UK, an increase of 12 from 2021/22¹.

Industry Results

The industries with the highest fatality rates were Construction and Agriculture/forestry/fishing with 45 and 21 deaths respectively. Manufacturing, Wholesale/Retail/Motor repair/Accommodation/Food and Transportation/Storage each had 15 fatalities recorded². These five industries accounted for 82% of all fatalities.³

Number of fatal injuries by selected main industry group, 2022/23p and annual average for 2018/19-2022/23p.⁴

Accident Type Results

80% of all fatalities were caused by five accident types. Once again the highest cause of death is from falls from height (40) followed by being struck by a moving, including a flying/falling, object (29). 20 people were struck by a moving vehicle, 12 were trapped by something collapsing/overturning and 9 by contact with moving machinery.⁵

Number of fatal injuries to workers by accident kind,2022/23 and annual average for the five year period 2018/19-2022/23.

Gender and Age Results

In 2022/23, 129 (96%) of all worker fatalities were male workers, a similar proportion to earlier years (116 (94%) during 2021/22).⁷

Looking at age groups, 25% of the fatal injuries were to workers aged 60 and over even though they only represent 11% of the workforce.⁸ When broken down into specific age brackets and the rate of fatal injuries per 100,000 workers, the groups with the highest rate are 65+ (1.43), 60-64 (0.75) and 55-59 (0.56). The groups with the lowest rates of fatality per 100,000 workers are 16-19 (0.16), 25-34 (0.25) and 20-24 (0.28).⁹

Rate of fatal injuries by age group (per 100,000 workers), annual average for 2018/19-2022/23p.¹⁰

Employment Results

For the five year period 2018-2023 33% of fatal injuries occurred to self-employed workers, although they only account for around 15% of the total workforce.¹¹ Figures also show that 64% of those who died in the Agriculture/forestry/fishing industries were self-employed workers.¹²

Percentage of fatal injuries to employees and self-employed workers for selected industries, 2018/19-2022/23p.¹³

Country and Regional Results

Using the fatal injury rate per 100,000 workers England has a lower injury rate than either Scotland or Wales. However, injury rates are strongly influenced by variations in the mix of industries and occupations and in England there are a greater proportion of people working in lower risk jobs than in Scotland and Wales.¹⁴

Number of fatal injuries by country and region within GB, 2022/23p and annual average for 2018/19-2022/23p (annual average number in brackets).¹⁵

Trends Over Time

Although there has been an increase of 12 deaths from the previous years’ data, the fatal injury rate per 100,000 deaths has remained largely stable over the last ten years. The rate for 2020/21 was 0.44 deaths per 100,000 workers, followed by 0.38 deaths per 1000,000 for 2021/22. ¹⁶ The 135 fatalities for 2022/23 means a fatal injury rate of 0.41 deaths per 100,000 workers. ¹⁷


1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 – Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain, 2023, Health and Safety Executive

7, 16 – Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain, 2022, Health and Safety Executive

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