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Annual statistics for 2023 to 2024 released – HSE has published the latest statistics on work-related health and safety in Great Britain.

The annual work-related health and safety figures for 2023 to 2024 include:

• 1.7 million working people suffering from a work-related illness, of which:
  • 776,000 workers are suffering work-related stress, depression or anxiety
  • 543,000 workers are suffering from a work-related musculoskeletal disorder
• 138 workers killed in work-related accidents
• 33.7 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury
• £21.6 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2022 to 2023)

HSE’s statistics webpages have full information on this year’s figures, including different types of work-related ill health and different industry sectors. You can also view our annual infographic-style summary statistics booklet.

Health and safety is essential for all seasonal and temporary workers

With many seasonal jobs available at this time of year, employers must prioritise the health and safety of gig economy, agency and temporary workers.

Workers are as likely to experience an accident in the first 6 months at a workplace as they are over the rest of their working life. HSE’s website has guidance on 6 ways to protect those who are new to the job.

We also have advice to help users and suppliers of agency and temporary workers understand their health and safety responsibilities.

If you are an agency or temporary worker, the law safeguards your health and safety and employment businesses (agencies) must ensure they follow health and safety requirements for every agency or temporary worker.

Safety notice: risk of exposure to biological agents – Workers at laboratories are being put at risk of infection because of missing information on specimen request forms.

If specimen request forms do not provide sufficient clinical information, then laboratory staff cannot identify the appropriate safety measures they need to apply to control exposure and possible infection.

HSE investigations have confirmed several occasions when workers have been exposed to pathogens capable of causing severe disease.

Dutyholders should ensure that:

• specimen request forms contain all relevant clinical information
• laboratory staff act on clinical information provided
• record-keeping and IT systems are fit for purpose

Read the safety notice on the risk of exposure to biological agents for full details

Controlling noise at work – Many people are exposed to noise levels at work that may be harmful, leading to permanent and incurable hearing damage.

Our publication Controlling noise at work is aimed at employers and other dutyholders.

It includes the Control of Noise at Work Regulations alongside guidance on what they mean. This sets out an employer’s legal obligations to control risks to workers’ health and safety from noise.

For more information about controlling noise at work, visit our:

• noise at work webpages, which include our noise exposure calculator
• construction industry noise webpages

Awareness of work-related stress- Many people still don’t realise that it’s a legal duty to include work-related stress in risk assessments.

You can help change that by supporting HSE’s Working Minds campaign, which marks its third anniversary this week.

The campaign helps raise awareness that all employers are required by law to prevent work-related stress and support good mental health by doing a risk assessment and acting on it.

You could:

• bring up the topic of work-related stress at a team meeting or talk about it at your next one-to-one with team members
• encourage others to do our free bitesize online learning
• download and share resources such as our one-page summary of support, campaign poster and social media graphics, with your colleagues and networks
• sign up to the monthly campaign ebulletin for updates and new resources

Guidance on working in cold and wintry weather – Make sure you protect workers during low temperatures and wintry conditions.

As winter starts to take hold, you can find helpful advice from HSE on keeping people as comfortable as possible when working in the cold.

Our website offers information and guidance including:

• advice on how to protect workers in low temperatures
• clarity on what the law says about temperature in the workplace
• how you can assess the risks and put controls in place to protect workers

In addition, our workplace temperature checklist will help you carry out a basic risk assessment

Preventing slips, trips and falls – Darker evenings and colder weather can increase the risk of slips, trips and falls in the workplace.

Protect your workers by considering the risks and putting measures in place to reduce them. Visit our website to:

• take a look at our online guide to avoiding slips and trips in winter weather
• get guidance on the steps you can take to prevent slips and trips
• access slips and trips resources, including HSE’s downloadable leaflets and publications

Our general guidance on slips and trips also provides plenty of information and resources on how to avoid these accidents in and around the workplace.

Food company fined £1.28m after worker crushed to death – The worker, who had been moving strip curtains in a loading bay, was killed after being struck by a lorry as it reversed into the bay.

HSE’s investigation found a host of failings by the company, which included:

• they had not assessed the risks associated with the temporarily installed curtains
• there was no safe system of work to move the curtains out of the way when lorries reversed into the loading bay
• the site staff had not been provided with training or instructions on how to move the curtains and had devised their own methods
• Read more in our press release: food company fined £1.28m after employee crushed to death by lorry.

New guidance for registrants on the minimisation of animal testing – HSE has published guidance for registrants on the minimisation of animal testing under UK REACH

HSE, in collaboration with the Environment Agency, has developed guidance for registrants on meeting the toxicological and ecotoxicological information requirements laid out in Annexes 7-10 of UK REACH. Specifically, the guidance outlines ways in which new tests on animals might be avoided or minimised.

Many opportunities to minimise animal testing are available and registrants are reminded that any animal tests must only be undertaken as a last resort and implementing the 3Rs (Reduction, Refinement and Replacement).

Registrants should use this guidance when considering how to meet information requirements in the UK REACH annex(es) relevant to their registration tonnage band.

The guidance primarily applies to the registration of new substances, that is, those that were not registered under EU REACH before the 1 January 2021.

Registrants must submit a testing proposal to the Agency for any Annex 9 and 10 testing by way of a dossier update in line with Article 40 of UK REACH.

View guidance on the minimisation of animal testing under UK REACH.