New statistics show improvements in Britain's workplace safety and health record

Britain became a healthier and safer place to work last year, according to new figures released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Across England, Scotland and Wales, 29.3 million working days (equivalent to 1.24 days per worker) were lost to injury and ill health between April 2008 to March 2009 – compared with 33.9 million in 2007/08.

Workplace fatal injuries fell from 233 in 2007/08 to a record low of 180 in 2008/09, and there was a reduction of over 7,000 in the number of workplace injuries classified as serious or incurring more than three days absence from work.

Across Britain major injuries at work have fallen since 2000 and this trend continued last year with 28,692 workers reported as being injured in 2008/09 (94.8 per 100,000) compared with 29,389 in 2007/08 (96.5 per 100,000).

This improvement saw business lose 1.6 million fewer working days through injury, a total of 4.7 million.

The number of people estimated to be suffering from work-related ill health fell by 79,000 in 2008/09 to 1.2 million.

And as a result three million fewer working days were lost to ill health in 2008/09 – a total of 24.6 million.

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